


Thrown into the Future

by ReinbewPastel



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies), Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow - Rob Kidd
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Future, Gen, Modern, Modern AU, Young Jack Sparrow, jack sparrow books, pirates of the caribbean - Freeform, rob kidd
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:54:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 29,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27487597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReinbewPastel/pseuds/ReinbewPastel
Summary: Post YJS series. After a year and a half at sea constantly avoiding death, Jack Sparrow can now finally relax and enjoy his newfound freedom. However a storm hits and he is thrown into what seems to be a whole new world in a time completely unrecognizable to him. Will he be able to get back to his own time before he loses his memories? Modern AU. Spoilers be warned!Fanfiction by me, Reinbew PastelPirates of the Caribbean Jack Sparrow by Rob Kidd © Disney Press
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have been writing this since March and I've been making little edits here and there. The beginning is a bit rough since I couldn't figure out how to properly start it, but please stay with me and keep reading! It gets good!  
> By the way, there's some swearing and other out of character things since I'm having most of the characters talk and act like today's people. There's a bit of spoilers for the end of the Jack Sparrow series too!

Jack Sparrow sat on the railing of the _Fleur de la Mort_ with one leg hanging over the turquoise Caribbean waves gently lapping against the side of the ship. The warm sun peeked through the few white puffy clouds in the sky and hit his face. He took a deep breath and the smell of the salty sea overtook his senses.

After nearly a whole year and a half out at sea constantly confronting obstacles: cursed and angry pirates, merfolk, ghosts, a power hungry witch, the infamous Davy Jones, a certain mutinous crew member accompanied by the Royal Navy and the East India Trading Company, another someone who he ran away from for a year who finally caught up to him, and dangerous magical items that almost killed him, he could finally relax and enjoy his freedom.

Jack closed his eyes and smiled as he leaned back against the lines. "Ah, yes—this is what it's all about!"

"Yeah, it's nice not having to run around and avoid getting killed all the time," his former first mate Arabella Smith said, leaning over the railing next to him. They sailed together aboard the now long-gone _Barnacle_. The slight breeze blew her tangled auburn hair in her face. Billy Turner silently slid next to Arabella and rested a hand on her shoulder as they looked out to sea together.

"Um, could you two get a room?" Jack asked. Arabella smacked him upside the head.

Jack thought Billy Turner, or Bloody Billy as he called him, was quite odd and he couldn't see how Arabella ended up with him, especially since Jack thought he himself was more suitable for her.

Other than that, everything was perfect. No curses, no magic, no traitorous aristos, and even Jean's cat-turned sister Constance was nowhere to be seen.

"Storm incoming!" Jean yelled from the top of the mainmast. Tumen ran and rang the bell.

Jack sat up and gazed ahead at the dark menacing clouds coming their way, ruining what was once a perfect day. "Why does this _always_ have to happen to me?" Jack complained rolling his eyes.

Jack quickly swung his leg back over and hopped back on the deck landing with a light stamp. It suddenly started to sprinkle and the skies began to darken. The wind picked up more, messing up his already messy hair.

"How did this happen so fast?" Arabella asked in bewilderment. "It can't be Captain Torrents!"

"Of course it can't," Jack responded. "I'm very sure he's as good as dead by now!"

Arabella's mother, Captain Laura Smith stormed out of her cabin followed by Mr. Reece and began barking orders. "EVERYBODY IN THEIR PLACES! Tumen, you and Jean furl the sails! We don't want the wind to get caught in them and topple this vessel over!" Tumen silently nodded and rushed to the rigging, scurrying up to join Jean. "Billy! Arabella! Secure all the cargo below!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Billy nodded.

"Aye, aye!" Arabella said. The two rushed below decks. Constance popped out from a nearby hiding spot, hissed, and followed them down.

"Reece, batten down those barrels over there, secure the lines, and join me," Laura ordered Mr. Reece.

"Aye, Cap'n!" Mr. Reece said, going off to do his duty.

Before she could give anymore orders, Jack interrupted. "And I shall be taking the wheel!" He took a few steps before the captain quickly stepped in his path.

Captain Smith leaned slightly to his eye level and bluntly replied, "No."

"Madame captain, you know I have plenty of experience saving ships from storms," Jack said.

"Experience?" Laura asked with scorn. "The only experience _you_ have with sailing a ship is that little dingy."

Jack dramatically gasped. "The _Barnacle_ was not a dingy, and you know nothing about me." He then added, "Besides, I saved your life so you should let me steer the ship."

"You don't play that card on me, Sparrow!" Laura retorted.

Before Laura could argue more, Arabella yelled from below decks. "MOTHER! Just let him take the wheel!"

Having no time to further argue, Laura sighed in defeat and clenched her jaw, narrowing her eyes as Jack triumphantly pushed past her and went up the stairs to the helm. She was pained to see him steer her own ship. She stormed back into her cabin, leaving everyone else to do the work.

"Don't worry, mates," Jack announced as he proudly took the wheel, "I'll keep us stable here and the storm will blow over real quick, and everything will be perfect again! Savvy?"

Suddenly, a burst of thunder roared the skies and lightning struck eerily close to the ship, resulting in a loud boom. Everyone jumped and Jack could hear Arabella scream from below. Rain poured even harder and the waves slowly began to go wild, crashing onto the deck and making the ship rock. Once Jean and Tumen finished furling the sails, they scurried back down the rigging. Jean helped Mr. Reece secure the lines and Tumen went to Laura's cabin to figure out where they were.

Jack felt powerful being behind the wheel of a big ship like the _Fleur_ , and adrenaline rushed through him knowing he was sailing it through a storm. However as the storm grew stronger and the waves became rougher, it came to be more difficult to take hold of the wheel as it tried to spin. Jack used all his strength to keep hold of the wheel, but it was clear he was struggling.

"Hey—uh, somebody help me out here!" Jack called out as he could barely see Jean and Mr. Reece at the lower decks through the sheets of rain. No response and no one came to help; they couldn't hear him through the screams of the wind.

Jack was left on his own. He struggled against the wheel once more but his strength gave out and he let go, letting the wheel spin on its own. Jack watched as the wheel spun and the noise of the storm disallowed him from hearing anything else. He glanced to his right and the last thing he saw was the heavy boom coming straight for him before it struck and everything went black.  
  


Jack suddenly became conscious again. He could barely open his eyes. Rain pelted him so he knew he was still in the storm, but the feeling of the ground he was laying on did not feel like the wooden deck. The ground felt like asphalt, but he could not recognize it as that.

All he could see through his half-open blurry eyes was red and blue lights flashing, and he could hear muffled voices he couldn't recognize. He could hear sobbing of a woman from afar and he heard multiple people scrambling right above him. His heart pounded out of his chest as he couldn't understand what was going on. Jack blinked and everything went black again.  
  


Jack woke up again to a white bright light. He squinted as his eyes adjusted. Pain immediately hit his head as he tried to attune to his surroundings. His bed was adjusted so he laid somewhat sitting up. All the walls in the room were white and he was surrounded by foreign machinery that let out the occasional beep. A series of moving images played on the wall across the room.

He further looked around and his gaze caught someone else in the room with him. The person was sitting in a chair looking down at something in his hand, and he looked somewhat familiar. This person looked a lot like the man he tried to run away from, the man who Jack thought may be his father, Teague. He looked like Teague, but at the same time, he didn't. His clothes were a lot different. Instead of the signature long red coat and the intricate waistcoat, he had on a short, dark red leather jacket and had layers of other clothes underneath. And instead of the bandana, the large bicorn, and dreadlocks adorned with trinkets, he had no headdress and a lot less dreads, with all his hair pulled back into a low ponytail and a few strands hanging in his face. He still had facial hair, but it was a lot shorter, almost like a simple goatee.

"Teague?"

Teague looked up. "Oh, you're awake." He put whatever was in his hand in his pocket, stood up, and brought the chair to Jack's bedside.

 _Oh no..._ Jack thought, _He's back..._

"How're you feeling, Jackie?" Teague asked.

Jack didn't answer his question as he closely studied him. He finally spoke. "What happened to all the—" he put his hands over his head gesturing the big hat, but was stopped by a tugging feeling on his arm. He looked and realized he had tubes connected to him. He put his arms back down and glanced over to Teague, who was staring at him.

"You know, I told you it was a stupid of you to go riding your bike in that weather," Teague reprimanded.

"What?" Jack was confused.

"You got hit by a car and had yourself almost killed. You're lucky you only got away with a concussion and stitches, and some bruises."

Jack tried to sit up more. "Yeah, whatever. I got to get back to the ship—to the crew!"

"I have no clue what you're talking about, boy," Teague said.

"You know—in the Caribbean! Where am I?! Take me back there now!" Jack demanded.

Teague rubbed his brow and shook his head. He then sat up and headed to the door.

"Where are you going?! Tell me where I am right now! I need to get back to my—Laura's crew!"

Teague walked out shutting the door behind him and Jack was left by himself. He slammed his head on the bed in frustration and pain shot through his head again. He gritted his teeth as he waited for the pain to pass.

_Buzz buzz_

He slightly turned his head to the side table and noticed a flat, black, metal thing vibrating face down. Jack reached over with a free hand and grabbed it. He was nearly blinded by the bright light the thing gave off.

He read aloud the text that appeared on the screen, "11:41am, September 6th, 20–WHAT?" Jack's eyes bulged out of his head. He skimmed through the rest.

Messenger 2h ago  
Anne 💕  
"Hey babe ❤️ I heard you got in an accident! I'm so sorry!!! I hope you're okay! 😭  
Hit me up as soon as possible when you wake up, ok?  
Love you 😘"

Jack furrowed his brow and wrinkled his nose in distaste as he read the messages. He discarded the device back on the table and laid back, staring at the moving images in front of him. The door then opened and Teague entered with another man in a white jacket.

The man greeted him with a smile as he walked over to his bedside. "Hi, Jack. I am Dr. Grogan. I'm here to help you and make sure everything is working normally since you came in with a head injury last night." He reached out for a handshake and Jack reluctantly took it. "Your dad is saying here you're having some issues so I'd like to ask you a few questions." The doctor talked in an accent Jack could not recognize. Teague almost talked in the same way, but not fully. Teague still almost sounded like himself.

"You don't get it! I'm not supposed to be here in this time!" Jack said turning to Teague. "I don't even know how I bloody got here! I'm supposed in the Caribbean—on the ship!"

"What ship?" the doctor asked.

"The _Fleur de la Mort_!" Jack answered. "Big thing, turns invisible—terrible captain. Her daughter though, it's a shame she picked an oddball over me."

The doctor wrote down some notes. "Okay, first thing I want to ask you is.... What do you remember from last night?"

"The last thing I remember at all is trying to control the _Fleur_ during that blasted storm that came out of nowhere."

"Okay," the doctor continued taking notes. "Do you know your home address?"

"My what?"

"Where do you live?"

"The Caribbean, mate!"

Teague turned to the doctor and raised a brow.

"What is the name of the school you go to?"

"School? Never been."

The doctor asked a few more general questions, which Jack either didn't know or answered incorrectly. He then pulled Teague off to the side in the other side of the room to quietly speak. However, Jack was still within earshot.

"What it looks like is Jack may have some memory issues. Memory loss is often common in head injuries like concussions. This is usually temporary so I'd say when you go home, just treat him normally, maybe try to jog his memory a bit, and his memory should be back in about a week."

"What's with him going on about this ship and the Caribbean then?" Teague questioned.

"I can't explain it," the doctor replied, "but I'm pretty sure he's probably thinking about a show or a movie he's watched or a book he's read recently."

"Well, he does sort of have a thing with nautical stuff," Teague reasoned.

"What we will do is we'll do a few more scans today to make sure there are no serious injuries in his brain, and he'll be discharged tomorrow morning if all is good," the doctor smiled and left the room.


	2. Chapter 2

Jack had a rough nights sleep through the pain and trying to figure out what happened to him. First he was fighting a storm aboard the _Fleur de la Mort_ , now he ended up in what seemed to be in a whole different time period, unknowing of where exactly he was and what was going on.

The nurse unhooked all the tubes and machines off of him and Jack threw on a set of clothes Teague gave to him, a simple red t-shirt with a design on it, sweats, a zip-up hoodie, and a pair of slightly beat up sneakers. With some protest from Jack since he argued he could walk just fine, the nurse heavily insisted to wheel him out of the hospital and met with Teague in a midsize janky metal horseless carriage—a car. It was another one of the many wonders of this world Jack couldn't comprehend. Teague reached over to the passenger side and opened the door. Jack hesitated at first, then he stood up and climbed in the seat.

The first few minutes were awkward as Jack quietly stared out the window. Teague broke the silence as they sat at a stoplight. "You want to listen to your favorite band, Jackie?"

"Huh?" Jack grunted.

Teague pulled out a similar looking device Jack had, which Jack had learned was called a phone. He plugged it into the car and music began to play out if it. At first, it sounded like a bunch of racket to Jack, but then it started singing piratey lyrics.

He glanced at the radio then turned back to the window as he listened to the music. The roads were so different and filled with other cars. They drove past many shops and restaurants with names he had never heard of. One of the things Jack noticed were that the women were either wearing trousers or hardly any clothing at all. Jack stared at a group of girls at the corner of an intersection. He leaned over to get a better look and hit is head on the window. He caught a glimpse of the side mirror and finally saw himself. He let out a strangled scream.

"What is it now?!" Teague snapped.

"I need another mirror—NOW!" Jack demanded.

Teague rolled his eyes, flipping down the visor on Jack's side and opened the mirror. Jack stared at himself in the mirror with wide eyes. His head was bare without a bandana, and while the top of his head still remained his long dark hair, the bottom half was shaved off, like an undercut.

"What happened to my hair?! It's all gone!" Jack said in despair, running his fingers through what was left of his hair.

"You tell me," Teague responded dryly.

Jack had also noticed he had black earrings on each ear. Two on his cartilage and one on his lobe. He then stared ahead and fixated on the car in front of them. The plate on the back had several letters and numbers, and right above was Florida. Florida...so that's where he probably was. He'd been to Florida once or twice before, but it looked nothing like where he was at.

Another few minutes went by and they drove into a neighborhood with rougher roads and not-so-nice houses. Thick trees lined the road and around the houses. Teague pulled up in front of the only two-story house on the street. Like many of the homes in this neighborhood, the house was closed off by a chainlink fence and Teague got out to unlock the gate before pulling into the driveway. Their car wasn't the only one parked at their house as a couple other cars were also parked in the driveway and another couple were parked on the street.

When Jack and Teague stepped out, they were immediately greeted by a friendly looking, dust-colored mongrel pup. Jack recognized it to be the prison dog from back at home, his real home in Shipwreck Cove. The only difference was this dog did not have the ring of keys in its mouth. However on its collar, it did have a single small key hanging from it. The dog wagged his tail happily as he sniffed Jack.

"Err, good doggie," Jack said as he rubbed the dog's head a little.

"Go in, Jackie. I'll close the gate," Teague said, tossing a small ring of keys to Jack.

Jack realized his family was going to be in there. He gulped as he proceeded ahead down the short path to the porch. He jumbled with the keys as he struggled to find the right one, and after the third try he managed to open the door. Jack took a deep breath as he stepped in. Out of instinct from growing up in Shipwreck Cove, he quickly ducked once he was all the way in. His instincts barely saved him from the oncoming glass bottle hurdling over his head and crashed against the wall behind him.

Jack stood back up and brushed himself off. Across the room on the couch sat Grandmama, "Ace" Brannigan, and Uncle Jack watching the TV next to Jack. Like Teague, they appeared almost nothing like themselves from how he last remembered them. However, Grandmama still had her thick gray curls and her threatening black eyes that always glowed in anger.

"How are you not dead?!" Grandmama spat out.

"Better question is how are _you_ not dead?" Jack quipped.

Grandmama growled.

"Take it easy on him. The boy can't remember crap," Teague said from the door.

"Whatever. I need a smoke and a beer." Grandmama stood up with her walker and made her way to the back of the house.

Teague walked past Jack and Jack followed him towards the direction Grandmama went in. Towards the back was the small kitchen and dining area, and another living room where Jack recognized more family members. On this couch and a beanbag chair were the little cousins with their eyes glued to screens.

Jack went up to the kids and waved a hand over one of their faces. "Oi! Look alive there, mates! What's wrong with you all? Aren't you supposed to be doing kid things like beating each other up? Or beating "Ace" up?"

"No!" the one kid wined and turned away, continuing to watch a video on a tablet. The rest ignored him.

Jack rolled his eyes and walked back to the kitchen. He took a quick glimpse through the sliding glass door to the backyard and recognized "Quick Draw" McFleming, Aunt Hazel, and Mabeltrude on the small deck with Grandmama smoking a cigarette with one hand and drinking a can of beer with another. Past the deck was overgrown lawn and weeds and a shabby above ground pool littered with leaves from the surrounding trees. A small wooden shed was at the very back.

Jack stopped at a tall cabinet with glass doors and looked inside. Every one of the shelves in the cabinet was filled with various liquor. Vodka, tequila, whiskey, a clear drink with "ALCOHOL" printed in big red letters and the fine text below read "100% Alcohol". _That stuff would mess me up with a single sip_ , Jack thought. And finally, the rest of it was filled with rum. All different kinds of rum from the standard Captain Morgan, Kraken, and Sailor Jerry, to the special rums straight from the Caribbean. Jack's eyes gleamed in excitement and his lips tingled as he stared at all the drinks. He reached for the handle and pulled, however the cabinet wouldn't open. He looked down and noticed the padlock on a small chain around the handles of the cabinet doors.

_Blast it!_ He huffed and turned towards the stairs. Along the wall of the stairs were a few framed pictures. These pictures were so clear and realistic, it was almost like they were taken right at that moment. The picture that caught Jack's eye was a big family photo of everyone he immediately knew, some extended family, and other family members he couldn't recognize. They were probably at a barbecue or something. By the look of the little cousins, this seemed to have been taken a few years ago. Jack scanned the whole picture over and over again but he couldn't find himself.

"Where am I in this?" Jack asked aloud.

Teague answered from the kitchen. "You were taking the photo."

"Oh." Jack proceeded upstairs where he was met with a hallway going two ways, lined with multiple doors. On the far left was a door with a hole boarded up at the bottom. Jack assumed it was his and went in.

The room had a dark aesthetic with tons of things hung up on the wall. Posters, nautical trinkets, nets, a pirate flag, and some unidentifiable things hanging. Clothes were strewn about the floor and the unkept bed. This was _definitely_ Jack's. Jack walked around, stepping over clothes and other weird objects.

He looked around at the tall-ish dresser in the open closet. On top of the dresser were various dead animals displayed on a large piece of fur pelt. Stuffed animals, bones, leathers, furs, and such. One of them he recognized as the taxidermy duck he had on his ship, the _Barnacle_. Another one of those dead animal things hung off of one of the drawer handles by a thin leather-suede cord. He picked it up and studied it. The thing was hard and had a slightly wooly texture to its short dark fur. It was open where the cord was strapped on, making it seem like a solid pouch.

Jack screwed up his nose a little. "What is this? A buffalo ballsack or something?" He let go of the scrotum, letting it hang off the dresser again and moved on.

He passed by the bed to the desk in the other side of the room. The shelves of the desk were filled with all sorts of stuff: movies, books, some figurines, more nautical things and dead things. One of the shelves had a couple jars filled with buds of...pot, alongside a small stack of cigarette paper and a lighter. Jack grabbed one of the jars and opened it, putting his nose to the rim and taking a whiff. The smell was so strong, he gagged and coughed. He thought for a moment.

"Well, I'd might as well try it since a lot has happened in the past couple days and that bloody liquor cabinet is locked," Jack decided.

He took one of the papers and held it by the filter at the end. He filled it with some of the pot and rolled it up. He then took the lighter and struggled a bit to strike it, but he quickly figured it out and lit the joint.

He put the end to his lips and took a puff. "Ah, yes! That—that's it," Jack said with half-closed eyes and a satisfied smile.

He then noticed something else in front of him; it was a thin flat black flat surface sitting on the desk. With the joint between his fingers, Jack carefully picked it up. It was a bit heavier than he expected. He examined it and felt around it until he found a dent in one of the longer sides. He pulled it apart and opened it like a book. One side had a bunch of buttons and the other was glass. He opened it all the way and a loud noise of shouting and moaning blasted through the speakers, making him jump a little. On the glass was a full screen video of a guy and a few girls....doing _it_. The video was sideways so he turned the laptop over the right way. Jack's red eyes grew wide as he intently watched in almost a trance-like state.

His trance didn't last long however as he suddenly heard the door begin to open. In a panic, he quickly shut the device and slammed it down on the desk. Someone entered the room and Jack turned to the door. The person was slim, slightly taller than him, and her face smattered in freckles. She appeared female, but dressed boyishly and her hair, while not completely short, was cut off a good amount. It took a minute for Jack to fully recognize who it was.

"Valerie...?" Jack guessed.

"Yeah? What's it to ya," his cousin snorted, then shifted her focus onto the joint in Jack's hand. "You can't be smoking pot in here! Teague will kill you!"

"So?"

Valerie went up to Jack and took the roll out of his hand, put it out and threw it in the trash bin next to the desk.

"Hey!" Jack shouted.

"Here," Valerie pulled out a little vape pen from her pocket, "hit this pen instead." Jack took a hit from the vape pen and sighed.

The door swung open and Teague barged in.

"Oh come on!" Jack cried. "Does anybody know how to bloody knock here?!"

"I'm sorry, Jackie," Teague said. "Grandmama and I own this house, and we own these doors. What is all the yelling up here?"

As Teague walked further in, he stopped and narrowed his eyes, looking suspiciously at Jack. "It's looking a little hazy in here. What did I tell you about vaping in this house, Jackie?"

"Come on, Teague," Valerie said in his defense, "It's just water vapor."

"Wrong. That vapor contains toxic metals."

"Says who?" Jack asked.

"I'll prove it," Teague went for Jack's laptop.

"NO!" Jack quickly pushed ahead of Teague and grabbed his laptop, hugging it against his chest. "You can't have it!"

"And why not?" Teague asked. "You're not hiding something from me, boy, are you?"

"No! Absolutely not!" Jack replied. "Nothing needs to be seen here!"

"Give it to me then!" Teague lunged at Jack and forced the machine out of his grip.

Teague then opened the laptop and the noise of shouting and moaning loudly played again. Jack held his breath and Valerie began to hysterically laugh. Teague silently shut it and turned to Jack with a frown. He was clearly disappointed in his son. "Would you care to explain this to me?"

"Ugh!" Jack threw his hands in the air. "I'm out of here!" He stomped out of his room in frustration.

Jack stormed into the only cracked door in the hallway, slamming and locking the door behind him. He couldn't figure out how to turn on the lights, but the sunlight from the window revealed he was in the bathroom. The bathroom was simple and quite small, although it was pretty cluttered and a bit dirty. Jack turned to the strange chamber pot attached to the wall. He had just seen one of those at the hospital earlier. Unlike the one at the hospital, this one had an attachment at the side with adjustment knobs.

"Hm. Wonder what this could be," Jack wondered curiously.

He reached for the attachment and turned one of the knobs. Suddenly a nozzle popped out from below the seat in the back and high pressure water sprayed out hitting him in the face.

"Ah!" Jack screamed and stumbled back as the water continued to spray him. He leaned to the side to rub his eyes and water sprayed at the mirror behind him. He turned back to the water jet hitting the mirror. "I should probably fix that." Jack ducked under the water spray and crawled to the attachment. He turned the adjustment knob back to its original position and the nozzle stopped spraying water, receding back under the seat.

He then stood back up. "Who knew in the future the pot actually pees on you instead," Jack said, glaring at the strange device.

Jack unzipped and threw off his wet hoodie, discarding it on the curtain rod above the bathtub. He closed the lid on the pot and sat on it. He rubbed his forehead in frustration.

_Buzz buzz_

The thing in the pocket of his sweatpants, which he learned was called a phone, vibrated. He pulled it out.

Messenger now  
Anne 💕  
"Hey, u ok?"  
"I haven't heard from you"

Jack opened the messages on a Facebook Messenger app where he could see all their previous conversations. He scrolled up past the messages he'd received earlier yesterday morning.

Anne:  
"Hey"  
"Lmk when ur on ur way, k 💕"

Jack:  
"Ok. The weather's lookin pretty bad, lass. I have to take the bike."

Anne:  
"Come on, it's not that bad"  
"Also, can u run by 7-Eleven or something and grab me snacks on the way?"

Jack:  
"Don't you already have food at home?"

Anne:  
"Luke ate all my shit while he was blazed last night :/"  
"I'll pay you back"

Jack:  
"Sure yeah.."  
"I'll be out of here in 10"

Jack studied the messages. This didn't happen. None of it did! He knew he was just in the Caribbean nearly three hundred years ago...or was he?

His phone started to loudly ring, startling him as his phone opened a different screen. Anne was calling him. Jack immediately hit decline. Before he could scroll up more, Anne tried to call again. Jack groaned and hit accept. He couldn't hear anything so he then hung up the call. He closed the app and ended up on the home screen, where icons of other apps were displayed over a picture of a skull and bones. Anne called again. Jack answered and waited. He could barely hear her voice so he put it up to his ear where he could hear her clearly.

"Jack! I know you're here! I saw that you read my—"

Before she could finish, Jack put his mouth to the speakers and mic at the bottom of the phone and blew into it really loudly. He then quickly hung up. He sighed as he held his phone, not even looking at the screen. Anne then called once more. Jack hit accept again and put the phone to his ear.

"What?" Jack said flatly.

"Don't you _fucking_ dare hang up on me again, Sparrow!" Anne yelled over the phone.

"Yes, and what?"

"You didn't call me when you woke up. I was worried about you!" Anne said.

"I'm busy trying to figure some rather confusing things out, love," Jack responded in a serious tone.

"With what? You still should have called me—or at least messaged me to let me know if you were okay," Anne continuously scolded.

"I'm honestly really not all that alright and I barely even know how to use this bloody thing," Jack said, "so just please leave me alone so I can figure things out like I said I am. Savvy?" Jack then immediately hung up without saying goodbye.

Jack sighed again in relief and decided to explore this device more. He opened Facebook first since he saw that name on the Messenger. He first ended up on the home page and he scrolled through some funny pictures labeled as "memes" a bit. He then explored the other features in the shortcut bar until he got to his personal profile.

"Jack Sparrow"

His profile picture was a mirror selfie in the bathroom he was sitting in at the moment and the cover photo was a group photo of him and other boys his age at a party, in which he didn't know who any of them were. He scrolled through his timeline a bit, but most of what he posted were just similar funny pictures so he scrolled back up and looked through photos.

He went through the photo albums in awe as not only had he never seen a picture of himself before, since whatever took those didn't exist at his time and only the wealthiest and the most higher standing had the pleasure of having their portraits painted, there were pictures of him in memories he never had. Many of them were pictures of him with more friends he never knew, a few here and there with Anne, and pictures of house parties and school events.

He closed off the app and went through others until he stumbled onto Instagram. The name above his page was "captain.sparrow" and the grid was very similar to his photo albums on Facebook, but with even more pictures. Tapping through the story highlights were selfies, fifteen second videos of parties, drinking, and vaping. The videos of him on all his social media also blew him away as he had never heard what his voice sounded like before, at least to someone else. He looked at his Instagram page as a whole again and noticed he had at least a couple thousand followers, which seemed like a lot to him.

He closed off his phone and stood up. He stared at himself in the mirror still trying to comprehend what brought him to the future. Being stuck in this house and with his family again, he didn't know where to start searching on how to get back to his own time.


	3. Chapter 3

Jack stared at the large building standing before him. He looked over to his left at a large sign, _Barnacle High School_.

Jack sighed. "Of course I'd go to a school called Barnacle High."

Jack glanced down at the papers in his hands. One was a map of the school and one was a class schedule with a locker number and combination written in the corner. He found them in the backpack he had hanging off of one shoulder. He'd never been to school before. Even if he did, school in his time would have probably been much different than this. He had spent the past week stuck with his family and now he was finally out of there for a few hours at least. All he needed to do now was to fit in while contemplating on what to do from there.

He walked up to the entrance and looked at his reflection in the windows of the doors. He wore a blue and white flannel over a white t-shirt with a black and white sparrow design on it, a hoodie tied around his waist, and a strip of red and white striped fabric that resembled his sash pulled through a black studded belt worn around his dark blue faded jeans rolled up over dark brown combat boots. Jack found a few red bandanas that were a lot like his old one in his closet and his eyes were lined with black eyeliner from an eye pencil he found on his desk. He smoothed out his dark hair over his bandana and swung the doors open, entering the building.

The hall was filled with other students around his age. Some were in groups cliqued together, and many were just walking from one place to another. A group of pretty girls noticed Jack from across the hall and waved.

"Hi, Jack!" the girls chanted and giggled together.

"Hello, ladies," Jack greeted with a slight bow, giving a smirk and a flirtatious wink.

He moved on down the hall, barely glancing at the map making sure he was going in the right direction. He found the wing he was supposed to be at, the junior wing, and quickly found his locker. Jack fiddled with the lock, trying to figure out how to unlock it with the combination code.

"This would be easy if this was just a regular lock with a key," Jack muttered under his breath.

Then he heard another group of girls chatting by the lockers at the other end of the hall. From what he could tell, most of them weren't as pretty as the popular girls who waved at him earlier, but still pretty enough for him to take notice. Jack studied the girls from afar. There was a slightly tanned blonde girl, a darker skinned girl with black hair, and another girl with auburn hair.

"Heh, I know someone with that color hair," Jack chuckled to himself, referring to the auburn girl. Then he realized something.

He walked towards them and stopped halfway down the hall. He leaned a little to get a view of the auburn girl's face, which was being blocked by the blonde one. The girl was light skinned with high cheekbones, a strong jawline, and she had really pretty brown eyes. She wore dark red leggings, a long white blouse covered by an open knitted beige sweater, and a dark green knitted beanie. Jack watched as she talked to the other girls. Her movements, her mannerisms, and even the way she bit her lip seemed all too familiar to him.

"Arabella," Jack breathed.

He shook his head. _No! There's no way that can be Arabella!_ Jack thought. He gathered the courage to walk up to them. As he got closer, he could hear her voice and she sounded vaguely like her too.

He stood directly behind the blonde girl and loudly cleared his throat. "Excuse me, ladies," Jack greeted.

All the girls turned. The dark haired girl's eyes widened and the blonde one snarled at him. "Jack Sparrow," the blonde spat.

Of course he knew he wouldn't be liked by absolutely everyone here. He never knew what kind of reputation he had in this school before. After all, he _is_ Jack Sparrow.

"Calm yourself, darlin'. I just want to talk to her," Jack said, pointing at the girl who seemed a lot like Arabella.

The two girls gasped and looked at the auburn haired girl who seemed quite surprised. She shrugged.

"Fine. You better not fuck with her or else we'll be throwing hands," the blonde girl threatened.

"You have quite the temper, don't you, blondie?" Jack quipped.

He pushed past the other girls. He grabbed the auburn girl by the arm and pulled her to the side, several lockers away from the group.

"So...you're Arabella, right?" Jack quietly asked.

The girl shifted nervously. "Um, yes?"

Jack's eyes lit up and a smile spread widely across his face. "It really _is_ you!" He threw his arms around her neck.

"Uh, what do you mean?" Arabella said in confusion, taken aback by Jack's complete shift in attitude.

Jack let go of her. "I can't believe I'm not the only one who ended up here! You don't have to worry, Bell. Whatever happened, we'll figure a way out of here and back to our own time. Savvy?" He then added, "I wonder if anyone else we know is here as well."

Arabella stared at him bewildered. "Jack, I have no clue what you're on or what you've been drinking, but you are talking absolute nonsense right now."

"Oh, come now," Jack said. "What about all the adventures we had on the _Barnacle_ and the _Fleur de la Mort_?"

"What?" Arabella responded, cocking an eyebrow.

"What about our crew—our friends?" Jack tried again.

Arabella shook her head.

"Do you _know_ Jean and Tumen?" Jack questioned.

"Um, I'm not sure," Arabella replied. She thought for a few seconds. "I've probably heard their names around. They might be in the freshman wing."

"Bloody Billy?"

Arabella thought again, then shook her head.

The only other person Jack had in his mind was one he despised. "Fitzwilliam?"

"Fitzwilliam?" Arabella repeated. "Oh, I think I know him. He's the president of the chess club."

"So...you're not _friends_ with any of them?" Jack asked doubtfully.

"No, I'm not," Arabella answered, shaking her head.

Jack's heart sank to his stomach as not only did he not get the response he hoped to get from her, he also realized that the signature accent Arabella spoke in was gone. She sounded like most of the other people here, in this modern accent he wasn't used to. This _was_ Arabella, but _not_ the Arabella he knew.

"Oh, I guess I must have been mistaken," Jack said uncharacteristically disappointed. "I'll let you go then, lass. I've got to attempt to open that blasted locker again."

Jack Sparrow, who Arabella knew as the biggest flirt and troublemaker in the school, turned and walked away back to his locker. Jack tried many times to crack the combination, but he still couldn't open his locker. To his surprise, Arabella appeared next to him and took his schedule that had the written combination code.

"Here, I'll show you," Arabella said, entering his combination. "Turn the dial three times to the right and stop when the first number hits the red line at the top. Then turn it to the left past the first number and stop at the second number. Then to the right and stop at the third number. Lift the latch and it's open."

Jack watched with wide eyes as as she opened his locker. "I'm sure lucky to have such a _resourceful_ mate in this school to help me out here."

"Call me resourceful, but I'm not your mate," Arabella said, handing him back the piece of paper. "Don't forget your combination code."

"Excellently done, my lady," he said, giving her a quick bow.

A bit of nostalgia hit Jack for a second before he began to go through his locker. Arabella walked back to her friends who were waiting for her.

  
Jack glanced down at the schedule in his hand and looked back up at the classroom door. He didn't know what to expect from his first class, which was History. He swung the door open to a room of about thirty other students sitting in rows upon rows of desks. He took a seat in the only desk available. An older man who appeared to be the teacher walked in the room and began writing on the white board with a marker. As soon as the bell rang, he walked over to the side and sat at his desk. He then addressed the students.

"All right, welcome everybody. I'll be taking attendance right now so anybody who isn't in their seat when I call their name will be marked as tardy."

As the teacher began calling names, Jack gazed around the room and began reading the white board. All that was written was the name of the teacher Mr. Hawk, the class, and the date."

"Jack Sparrow."

Jack wasn't paying attention, fixated on the board as the teacher called his name again.

"Jack Sparrow."

Jack snapped out of it and finally responded. "Uh, here."

Mr. Hawk turned and stared at him. Everyone was quiet. "Usually you're tardy...or absent...or you show up intoxicated."

"Well..." Jack started. "I got hit by a car a week ago."

Mr. Hawk stared at him for a few seconds longer before going back to normal. "Okay." He marked him as present.

The teacher stood up to the front of the board. "Today we'll be covering an interesting topic that is off the book today. Although it isn't part of the curriculum, it is still a very large part of western history in the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries and is a large influence to our world today. The pirates of the Caribbean... and no, not the Disney World ride." Some students chuckled. That caught Jack's attention as it was something he was _very_ familiar with.

Mr. Hawk pulled a large opaque curtain-like screen down in front of the white board, went to his desk, and came back with a laptop, a lot like what Jack had in his room. He opened it up and spent the next couple minutes connecting it to another machine. And image suddenly displayed on the screen in front of the board, projected from the machine connected to the laptop. The image displayed was a classic portrait of pirates and officers battling aboard a ship, titled above "The Golden Age of Piracy".

"I expect you all to be taking notes," the teacher said. "As always, there will be no phones or taking pictures of the screen."

He then hit a button on the laptop and the image on the screen changed to a map of the Caribbean and bullet points below. "Although piracy had already been around for centuries, it became very prominent in the mid-seventeenth century around the world, especially in the Caribbean, starting what is known as the Golden Age of Piracy, which lasted from about then until nearly the 1730s.

The Caribbean was already an important part of history as it was the center of the Age of Exploration. It played a huge role in the trade of goods and slaves and it was one of the biggest economic powerhouses at the time."

Jack didn't write any notes; he slouched back in his seat chewing on the end of a pencil as he intently paid attention to the teacher lecturing about privateers, buccaneers, pirates, the War of the Spanish Secession, the Pirate Round, the mention of a few pirates such as Blackbeard, Bartholomew Roberts, and a few others, and the downfall of piracy. Jack hoped he would hear anything vaguely familiar to him, but alas none. Nothing mentioned of anyone he personally knew, the Code of the Brethren, or anything. Nothing even about any magic or curses he had seen in his day.

Jack raised his hand and quickly interrupted. "I'd hate to interrupt, teach, but what about the Pirate Code, the Code of the Brethren? At all?" he questioned.

Mr. Hawk, annoyed at Jack's interruption, answered. "Records from the time, especially about pirates, are really scarce, if much of it were even accurate. There probably was a Code the pirates followed as a brethren. Rules pirates must follow. And many ships had their own articles one must agree too, like a contract."

"Wait, so no Right of Parlay, no any man who falls behind is left behind, no Pirate King stuff?" Jack asked.

"No," Mr. Hawk replied. He then paused. "You know, you don't usually participate in class and you seem very interested in the subject. You may as well be a pirate, you already look the part," he referred to Jack's bandana. Jack frowned.

The bell rang. "All right," Mr. Hawk began, "before you grab your books, I'd like to remind you all that Talk Like A Pirate Day is later this week so we'll be spending the next few days learning about some of the specific pirates we mentioned and the life aboard a pirate ship, and we'll be watching a documentary on pirates. We'll be having a test at the end of the week so keep your notes with you and study." Talk Like A Pirate Day... that explained the coincidental subject.

  
Later on at lunch, Jack stepped out of the cafeteria building into the courtyard, where students gathered in groups and cliques as well as many still in the cafeteria, the locker halls, and the basketball court in the back.

Jack kept his head up and tried to make sure he didn't appear as if anything was wrong. He knew he was already failing at passing as a modern teenager and he needed to redeem himself to not seem suspicious. It was easier at home when he mostly locked himself in his room, but in a place with a ton of other kids around his age and high social pressure, he wasn't sure if he was going to last.

While he roamed through the courtyard, he noticed various reactions from all the students he walked past. Some glared, some shuddered, some looked away. Whatever he had done in the past marked him as someone to be feared, and yet he still walked as if he owned the entire school. He almost felt happy he had that kind of control over everyone here, like he had some kind of power or the top of an hierarchy.

Jack gazed around the sea of students and spotted a small group of obviously slightly older, and seemingly snobby boys hanging out nearby one of the tables. The boy who had his back turned to him was tall and wore a dark blue tracksuit and light blue and white sneakers, and his long blonde hair was pulled back into a messy bun.

Jack immediately knew who this was. Fitzwilliam P. Dalton the Third. The last time he saw him, Jack left him aboard a battered Navy ship after it was revealed the other boy was a spy for the Royal Navy and the Company a year into sailing under his command.

Jack looked away and groaned. Arabella had said she kind of knew Fitzwilliam, but Jack made the effort to avoid him. He decided to confront him.

He walked up to the other boy. "Hey you."

The boy turned around and sneered. Fitz turned back to the other boys he was with and nodded. He then pulled Jack and himself away.

"What do you want Sparrow?" He spat when he said his name. Unlike everyone else he met in this time, Fitzwilliam still had his posh British accent.

"Hey now! No need to get so pissy, Fitzy," Jack said. "I just wanted to see how you're doing in this strange blasted place of a world."

"I don't have time to deal with you. Go bug someone else for once," Fitzwilliam said crossly.

Jack didn't listen as he stared at the t-shirt the halfway zipped up tracksuit jacket revealed. The shirt was white and had a golden logo written across it.

"' _Gucci_ '?" Jack read his shirt. "Who is that?"

"It's a designer brand name," Fitzwilliam replied snottily. "This is a five-hundred dollar shirt. The tracksuit is also Gucci, nearly thirty-five hundred dollars together," he then pointed to his shoes, "And my Louis Vuitton trainers are also a thousand dollars."

"You paid hundreds to thousands of dollars to have someone else's name on your clothes? _Why_?" Jack asked with a sneer.

Fitzwilliam fumed. "Don't you dare question me or mock my wealth!"

Jack glanced over at something shiny and gold peering out from under Fitzwilliam's right sleeve, barely enough for Fitz to not notice. "Oh, and I wouldn't be showing off your money or the value of your belongings if I were you, mate. Where I'm from, you never know if someone out there is going to do something incredibly _stupid_."

Before Fitzwilliam could question him, Jack swiftly grabbed his arm and pulled a nice, expensive looking gold wristwatch from his wrist and ran off with it.

"JACK SPARROW!" Fitzwilliam yelled as he ran after Jack.

Jack ran through the courtyard and into the cafeteria still filled with students and zoomed through the aisles between tables with the formerly known aristocrat chasing after him. He flew past Arabella and her friends, who were eating and chatting at one of the tables, and stopped in the middle of the cafeteria.

"That is a thirty-five thousand dollar Rolex! I demand you give that back at once!" Fitzwilliam shouted, stomping his foot. His voice echoed through the cafeteria as everyone quietly stared.

"Nah, I might just keep it for a while," Jack said casually, tossing the watch up and down. He then took off again and out of the cafeteria with the shouting Fitzwilliam after him. Although he hated Fitzwilliam during his first year of adventures with him, he almost missed annoying Fitzwilliam and taking his pocket watch. While he was stuck in this strange world, he might as well have fun.

Jack ran through the courtyard again and into the main building. He flew through the locker halls with Fitzwilliam still chasing him. He then ran up the stairwell at the end of the hallway and stopped at the top, leaning over as Fitzwilliam was at the bottom seething. Jack held the watch over the railing.

"What did you think? Did you think I was actually going to keep it?" Jack smugly asked as he held the watch by his thumb and forefinger.

"Give...that BACK TO ME!" Fitzwilliam screamed.

"A thirty-five thousand dollar watch you say? I doubt that you _actually_ paid thirty-five thousand dollars for this," Jack said. "I'm having the slightest hunch that you were actually given this from a kidnapped sister of yours."

"Yes, I did!" Fitzwilliam yelled. "It's really valuable, and even more so since I have emotional attachment to it. Now give it back!"

Jack shrugged. "All right, I have no use for this thing anyway." He then casually dropped the watch, making Fitz scream in fear. Fitzwilliam caught the watch as it fell and Jack took off running again.

Jack ran through the hall and back down the stairs on the other side. As soon as he reached the bottom, the bell rang and all the students around him immediately cleared out to their respective classes, leaving the halls empty. Jack didn't want to deal with anymore classes. History was interesting yet a bit disappointing to him and all the other classes he hated sitting through. Math was too confusing, he sat out of Gym because he "forgot" his gym clothes, and no one could read his handwriting in English. It was getting increasingly difficult to conceal the fact he was from another time.

Instead of going to his next class, he continued walking down the empty halls, the walls aligned with lockers. It would've almost seemed eerie to an average student. He spent a good while wondering the halls until he suddenly began to hear footsteps. Thinking fast, Jack quickly turned to the nearest door and swung it open, finding shelter behind the closed door as he peaked through the little window. A student with "Hall Monitor" printed on the back of her shirt walked past the door.

"Jack Sparrow." A familiar voice rang from behind him. Jack turned around to see no other than Tia Dalma standing behind a desk.

"Tia Dalma...It's good to see you," Jack said cautiously as he stepped closer.

Tia Dalma looked about the same although her clothing was a bit different; a dark maroon top, a long skirt in multiple shades of brown, a dark loose belt sitting at her hips, and a dark brown shawl. A small tag hung on the front of her shawl by a clip; "Tia Dalma, Nurse."

"I see Jack Sparrow has been caught in another predicament," Tia Dalma said, to Jack's delight, in her usual Caribbean accent. "Lost in another world wit' nowhere to go."

"Do I know if you're the Tia Dalma I know?" Jack questioned. He squinted as he examined her. Tia Dalma looked exactly the same, minus the clothes, and even her accent and her confusing way of speaking was the same as well.

"I am from there, and from here. I'm in once place, but I'm also everywhere," Tia Dalma replied mysteriously.

"Oh thank the Seven Seas I'm not the only one!" Jack sighed in relief. Of all people from Jack's time to be here, it was best that it was Tia Dalma. Perhaps she would provide some kind of explanation or solution, although it would need to be decoded, and to Jack's dread, she would demand payment.

"I suppose you hadn't been playing wit' time, have you?" Tia Dalma asked, knowing Jack had carelessly screwed up time the last time she saw him.

"No, no," Jack replied. "We were caught in a storm and I was hit by the boom. Then I woke up and suddenly I somehow ended up here."

Tia Dalma gave him a look then quickly turned and walked behind her desk. She opened up one of the cabinets above and grabbed one of the jars, a jar of crab parts. She cleared the papers on her desk and and dumped out the crab parts onto it. _Ah yes, this is the Tia Dalma I know,_ Jack thought.

"What the fuck?"

Jack and Tia Dalma turned to the bed were another student, a boy who appeared to be a jock, had sat up staring in shock, confusion, and disgust as he held an ice pack to his knee. Jack had not noticed him there before. Tia Dalma quickly stared back in anger as her eyes glowed. Jack definitely knew the look. The boy's face turned frightened and quickly laid back down.

Tia Dalma looked down at the crab parts and turned back to Jack. "It appears you did not only end up in a different time, but in a different world. You were sent 'ere by him and the only way to get back is to face him where him first met."

"Could you be a little more specific here?" Jack said impatiently. "I ended up in a different world and someone sent me here? Who is it? I need names."

"There is more than one universe, Witty Jack. Each one has a different version of you." Tia Dalma explained. "You crossed worlds wit' another version of you when you were sent 'ere. If you don't return home soon, you will lose all memory of your old life."

Jack's head clouded up as he thought. He quickly realized he may not ever be back at his home time, out at sea, being free anymore. "I've got to fix this," Jack said. "I'd be able to a whole lot quicker if you'd be more clear and tell me who it is."

"Just follow de storm. You will find him," Tia Dalma said with a wink. She knelt down behind her desk and pulled out an ice pack from one of the drawers. She stood up and handed it to Jack.

Jack took the ice pack and stared at it. "Um, what's this for?"

"If you don't want it, give it back." Tia Dalma held her hand out.

"No," Jack held the ice pack closer to his chest. He fiddled around with the pack of ice and put it on the back of his neck, sending a shiver through his body. He took the ice pack off his neck and played with it some more as he looked at Tia Dalma. "It's been a while since we've seen each other, love. How about we catch up—"

"Go back to class!" Tia Dalma gave Jack the look as she raised her voice.

"Okay," Jack quickly peeped out in response. He put the ice pack down and headed for the door.

"I demand payment," Tia Dalma said. Jack stopped in his tracks and turned to her. He knew this was coming. "But not today." Her voice returned to a normal tone as a smile crept upon her face. Jack turned again and went straight out the door.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **(A/N: Although I've already introduced Anne in the first two chapters, I just want to disclaim even though she and another character are in Child of Teague, this story has no connection to CoT whatsoever (unless you make it be but I might contradict some of CoT depending on how the story goes). I just wanted to use these characters to give Jack some friends to talk to and explore the world with while he's out of his element. Also a little CW, the scene at the end where it somewhat has CA. Just wanted to warn ya. Enjoy!)**

Jack stood by his locker lost in thought while looking out for any Hall Monitors.

"Hey, Jack!"

He heard a male voice from down the hall. He looked up and found a group of three boys he didn't know coming toward him.

"We haven't seen you all day! We heard you got fucked up last week," one boy said as they came up to him. The boy grabbed his hand for a shake and pulled him in towards him with half a hug, which Jack was taken aback by.

"Who are you?" Jack asked.

"We're your friends! Why'd you ask?" another boy questioned.

Jack then finally made the connection that these were some of the boys in his cover photo on Facebook. He thought quick to save himself from the slip up. "Well, me thinks my memory is messed up from the accident so would you mates care to uh, reintroduce yourselves to uh, jog my memory a bit, mates?"

"Oh, yeah," the first boy answered. "I'm Devin, that's Finn, and that's River," he introduced, pointing to the other two boys. Devin and Finn had dark hair while River had blond hair. All three of them dressed like Jack would belong in their group.

"Ah! Yes, I remember now!" Jack said under fake excitement. "Just need to clear my head a bit."

"We'll help you with that. Grab your shit and we'll go to our spot," Devin said.

Jack collected his things from his locker and he followed his friends to the back of the school. The boys led him to a spot between a couple of dumpsters that was littered with bottles and papers. On the building and the sides of the dumpsters had things written all over them with marker and pen. Curse words, symbols, stuff about teachers and other students; Jack's favorite was "Fitzwilliam Eats Shit".

Jack grabbed his nose. "Would you care to tell me why we'd choose to meet at a place so pungent, I can feel the hairs in my nose burning off?"

"No one can see us here," River replied as Devin unzipped his backpack.

Devin pulled out a small bottle of Captain Morgan rum from his backpack. He opened it and took a sip from it before passing it to River and Finn. Each of the boys took a sip and coughed a little after the rum ran down their throats. The bottle then passed to Jack. Jack eyed the bottle in his hands for a few seconds. He then put the bottle to his lips and took a few healthy swigs of the rum, a little more than what the other boys took, and swallowed it much more smoothly as if he had been drinking rum his entire life. By the looks of the other boys' faces, they almost seemed impressed. Jack handed the bottle back to Devin. He put his back against the side of the building and sank down to the ground as he took a deep breath.  
  


A good while after the boys drank a little and hung out at the dumpsters, the bell rang and all the students began to flood out of the building. The other boys packed their things up and left while Jack stood up and leaned against the building, recovering from his tipsiness.

Suddenly, someone popped up in front of him, grabbed him by the front of his shirt, and pulled him towards them until their lips locked. Jack's eyes went wide and he pulled himself away. He wiped his mouth with his arm until he realized who it was. She had long wavy brown hair, slightly tanned skin, and she was a bit taller than him. It was Anne. He suddenly felt a slap across his face.

"What the hell was that?!" Anne cried out.

"Sorry!" Jack apologized quickly. "I couldn't recognize you. I've been having some memory issues since 'the accident.'"

Anne's demeanor changed. "Aww! My Jackie's having memory issues! Well don't worry, I'll take you out to the mall and get you something to eat."

"Er, no thanks. I'm fine. I got to—"

"Come on! It's my treat!" Anne insisted.

She grabbed him by the arm and took him to her car parked just down the street. Jack stared out the window as she drove off, hiding his nervousness. He wasn't sure where she was taking him.

"I'm thinking of going to the closest mall since I don't want to bring you out to far," Anne said, keeping her focus on the road.

Jack didn't respond as something on the left side of the road caught his eye. It was a giant blue structure that looked like tracks, going high up in the air in turns and loops.

"What's that over there?" Jack asked, pointing over to the structure.

Anne quickly glanced over to where he pointed. "It's Busch Gardens, you know that!"

"Ahem, hello? I've got a bit of an empty head here, mate," Jack reminded as he tapped his head.

"Oh, right. Busch Gardens has cool rides and animals and stuff," she explained.

"Rides?" Jack questioned.

"Yeah, rides. They're fun but I don't really like the ones that go upside down though," Anne responded. "There's a water park to the right just down the road here." Shortly after, they drove past a sign for Adventure Island.

A few minutes went by and they drove into a huge parking lot in front of a big and long building. Anne parked close to the front.

"Wow," Jack murmured as he climbed out of the car, staring at the mall before him.

"Come on," Anne said, taking his arm again.

The couple walked to the entrance as Jack stared at the giant letters above. They entered through the doors to a wide empty walkway, and they walked to the end where all the stores were and turned right. Jack looked around at the front of all the stores on either side, however the more stores he saw, the more he realized how many of them were closed and gutted.

"All the shops are quite rather empty around here," Jack observed.

"Yeah," Anne agreed. "This mall has been dead for years."

More open stores began to appear. Some clothing stores, a novelty gift store, a comic book store...

"Hey, let's check out Hot Topic real quick," Anne pointed to the store on the right.

The lighting fell dimmer as the two walked into the store. Music played in the background as Jack looked around at all the T-shirts and merchandise of various characters and bands. The employee behind the counter looked up and smiled.

"Hey, Jack! Hey, Anne!" He waved and walked around the counter. The young man was no more than three years older than Jack.

"Hey, Asher!" Anne greeted.

"Asher?" Jack hesitated. He was someone he was never on good terms with back at Shipwreck Cove, however Asher seemed _nice_ to him? He also looked a whole lot different. He still looked like Asher...but different.

Asher walked up to them. "How's it going?"

"Not bad. Just stopping by to say hi before we eat," Anne replied. "Jack was hit by a car while riding his bike last week. He's still recovering."

"Oh shoot! Sorry to hear that, bro! That really sucks," Asher said sympathetically. He went back behind the counter and pulled out a couple small pieces of paper, handing them to Jack. "Here's some Hot Cash. Hopefully that will make you feel a bit better."

Jack took the slips with his forefinger and thumb and examined them. "Thanks." He shoved them in the back pocket of his jeans.

"Well, we must get going now," Anne said.

"Okay, I'll let you both go grab grub. Hit me up if you all want to hang out. I'm off on the weekends," Asher said leading them out of the store.

"Cool! It was great seeing you!" Anne waved as she and Jack walked out and turned to the direction they were walking down. Jack couldn't wrap his head around what happened to Asher.

The rows of stores opened up into the main atrium of the mall. Jack gazed around in amazement at the somewhat large-ish open area, with bungee trampolines and a jewelry kiosk in the center. The two walked across the atrium to a pair of stairs that seemed to move. One going up, and one going down. As Anne stepped on the one going up, Jack hesitated.

Anne looked down at Jack as she went up. "Come on, Jack."

Jack looked down at the steps that seemed to be coming out of the ground. "Well, that's interesting," Jack thought aloud.

"Jack!"

Jack looked up to see Anne was already at the top.

"Come on! You've got people waiting behind you!" Anne called out impatiently.

Jack turned to the two people and a family waiting behind him to get on the stairs. "My apologies, mates!" he clapped his hands together and gave a small bow. The people didn't seem too amused.

He looked back down at the steps again. He held his breath as he slowly put his right foot on the steps and he grabbed the moving handrails with both hands. As the stairs and handrails moved up, the more Jack's legs stretched out as his left foot was still planted onto solid ground, and the handrails moved faster, stretching his arms away from his body.

Anne threw her hand to her face in disbelief and embarrassment. "Oh my god! You're acting like you've never been on an escalator before!"

Jack lifted his left foot off the ground onto the escalator and pulled himself back together, standing on one step. The people who were waiting behind him finally stepped on. Jack whipped around frantically as he went up the escalator. He then glanced up ahead and saw he was getting closer to the top, the steps flattening out and disappearing back into the floor. Jack's eyes widened.

"Oh no, oh no," Jack muttered, shaking his head. He turned around and went back down the steps.

"Excuse me. Sorry, mates!" he said, pushing past the already annoyed people who were behind him. Reaching the bottom proved difficult as the escalator was going in the opposite direction.

"JACK!" Anne yelled, probably a little too loud for the echoing mall.

Jack whipped back around once more giving a look to Anne at the top. Jack stayed still this time as he went back up. At the top, he leapt off back onto solid ground, avoiding the part where the steps disappeared. Jack straightened himself out and put his hands to his sides.

"I did it!" Jack exclaimed proudly.

Anne stared at him with an angry expression.

Jack put his arms down and loosened his posture, noticing Anne's glare. "What?" he asked obliviously.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"...Memory loss?" Jack answered with a smile and a shrug.

" _Bullshit!_ " Anne swore. "You obviously remember how to walk and breathe, so you'd remember how to go on a goddamn escalator."

Jack had no words to say. He shrugged again as he put his hands in his pockets and looked down at his feet. Anne then gently grabbed his hand from his pocket and wrapped her fingers between his. They began to walk toward the food court.

"We're taking the elevator on the way back," Anne said under her breath.

"Oh great! More weird contraptions," Jack joked. _What's an elevator?_  
  


The couple ate at the table closest to one of the few Asian restaurants Anne talked about. Jack poked at his chicken and shoved the noodles in his mouth with chopsticks.

"Hey. Want to try some sushi?" Anne offered. Jack looked up.

"Sure," Jack replied. He looked at Anne's row of sushi and the mysterious green paste next to it. "Could I try a little bit of that too?" he asked curiously, pointing at the paste.

"The wasabi? Are you sure?" Anne queried.

"I'm feeling a little adventurous."

"All right then." Anne grabbed a tiny piece of wasabi with chopsticks and put it on top of a sushi roll.

"A little more?"

"Uh, okay?" Anne sounded unsure. She grabbed another tiny piece of the wasabi and added it to the sushi.

She grabbed the roll with the chopsticks and held it out to Jack. Jack leaned over the table and bit the entire roll off the sticks. Jack sat back in his chair as he chewed.

Jack smiled. "It's good," he said with his mouth full. His expression suddenly began to change as his smile faltered. He looked confused and...

"Why is it spicy?!" Jack croaked.

Anne began to laugh.

"My nose burns!" He put his hand to his nose and continued to chew, nearly choking on the sushi. His nose felt like lava was running through his nostrils.

Anne continued laughing as she stood up and walked beside Jack, rubbing his back. "Just swallow it, babe."

Jack managed to swallow everything in his mouth, but his nose continued to burn and his eyes watered. He grabbed a napkin and blew his nose. "Why didn't you tell me it was spicy?" His voice was muffled under the napkin.

"I'm sorry! I thought you knew!" Anne chuckled, ruffling his hair. She kissed his cheek and went back to her seat.

Jack blew his nose again and rubbed his eyes. He grabbed the water bottle beside him and took a sip. Anne almost felt bad.

"Anyway," Anne began. "Did you tell your dad you were going to be gone after school?"

"Ah, nope," Jack answered. He remembered he had his phone on him. He reached into his pocket for his phone and looked down. His eyes bulged out of his head. He looked back up at Anne. "Lass."

"Yeah?"

"I'm in danger." He looked back down at his phone again. Three missed calls, two voicemails, and seven messages. "I'll be right back."

Jack stood up and walked toward the upper atrium while Anne waited at the table scrolling through her phone. Jack spent a minute figuring out how to make a phone call. He came back a couple minutes later. "We've got to leave soon. I have to go home." He dreaded going home. If this family was anything like his family at Shipwreck Cove, he knew what was coming.

"Aw, all right. We'll finish our food real quick and we'll head out," Anne said. "But first, let's take a selfie!"

"Huh?" He didn't know what she was talking about.

Anne stood up next to Jack and held her phone out an arms length. Jack could see himself, and her, on the screen. "Smile!"

Confused, Jack gave a smirk as Anne snapped the picture.  
  


The drive home was silent as Jack stared out the window, feeling a sense of dread come upon him.

Anne finally popped the question. "Are you okay?"

Jack looked over at her. "What do you mean?"

"You've been acting strange all day," Anne said.

"Would you care to explain, lass?" Jack asked.

"First off, you acted weird on the phone last week. Today, you were trippin' out over everything at the mall. I smelled rum on you earlier. I don't know if it was that, like I don't even know why you're drinking while you said you were concussed anyway—"

"I never said that," Jack protested.

"Yes you did," Anne remarked. "You said you were having memory issues after the accident. Memory loss is losing the ability to retain current information, not acting like a time traveler who just jumped hundreds of years into the future and is really bad at hiding it."

"It's because I am!" Jack blurted out.

"'Am' what?"

"A time traveler...of sorts," Jack quickly looked away.

Anne furrowed her brows and frowned. "Don't play games with me," She pulled over in front of Jack's house and unlocked the doors. "Get out of the car."

Not saying anything, Jack unbuckled his seatbelt. He picked up his backpack and opened the door, stepping out onto the sidewalk. After Jack shut the car door, Anne immediately sped away as quickly as she pulled over. In his head, he kicked himself for how much of an idiot he was.

Jack went through the gate, going up the driveway and the path leading to the door. Surprisingly, the door was already unlocked. He walked in the house, ready to duck in case of any oncoming glass bottles hurdling towards him. Nobody was in the room. Jack stepped further in and shut the door as his eyes darted around.

"Jackie."

Jack jumped and looked straight toward the kitchen where Teague was standing. Teague did not look happy at all.

"The school called and told me you were missing from your last two classes, and you weren't there when I came to pick you up," Teague said in a serious and angry parental tone. "I called you three times and sent you several messages and you didn't respond."

"I don't look at my phone!" Jack exclaimed.

"It's one thing for you to skip classes like you usually do, but you didn't text me or call me to tell me you were going to hang out with your friends after school. I sat in the parking lot for an hour," Teague continued to reprimand.

"Again, I don't look at my phone!" Jack repeated.

"You know what's going to happen now, boy," Teague began to pull the belt from his jeans.

"So what? You're going to smack me around with a little belt?" Jack taunted, clearly haven been struck with much worse in his day.

Just then, Grandmama stepped beside Teague with her walker from the kitchen. Not keeping his eyes off Jack, Teague handed the belt to Grandmama. Jack's eyes widened and his face dropped. He knew he was going to go to bed in pain that night.

"Ha ha!" Valerie laughed from the middle of the stairs. "Jackie's shitting himself right now!"

"Get her out of here!" Jack yelled, pointing to Valerie.

Suddenly, Jack was ambushed by several little hands, the younger cousins. "Hey!"

The little cousins shoved Jack into the kitchen, ripping his hoodie from his waist and pulling his flannel off.

"Get off of me!" Jack shouted.

Valerie scurried down the stairs to watch the action. Teague pulled a chair from the dining table and flipped it around. Jack was promptly forced into the chair sitting backwards with his back facing towards them. He struggled to move as he was held down and his shirt was pulled up, exposing his back.

"Two lashes for the classes you missed, one for the hour I waited to pick you up, three for the calls you missed, and seven for the messages you ignored," Teague said.

Grandma folded the belt in half raised it above Jack. After a moment of silence, she struck him with the belt. Jack cried out in pain as it hurt a lot more than he expected, leaving a burning sensation on his back. She struck him once again and Jack screamed.

"Shut the fuck up!" Valerie scolded. "We don't need anymore visits from the CPS!"

He didn't know what that was. The pain made it difficult for him to be quiet. He shut his eyes and clinched his jaw tightly shut as Grandmama struck him over and over again. Jack couldn't let himself shed a tear in front of anyone, especially Teague. After a few more lashes, Grandmama stopped for a rest.

"May I have a turn?" Valerie asked with a sneer toward Jack.

"I don't see why not," Teague answered.

"Good, less work for me," Grandmama huffed. She grabbed her walker and walked to the backyard door after giving Valerie the belt. "Teague, could you grab me a beer?"

"Sure," Teague went to the fridge and grabbed a beer can, then they both disappeared into the backyard.

Valerie snickered as she stood behind Jack. She spotted the slips from Hot Topic sticking out from Jack's back pocket. "Oh sweet! Hot Cash!" She pulled them out of his pocket and shoved them into hers.

She raised her arm with the belt in the air. Jack tried to turn and look back at her with wide eyes. Valerie then struck him.

" _AHHHH!_ "


	5. Chapter 5

Throughout the rest of the week, Jack learned he did not like school at all. The curriculum in all the classes were very new to this time and the assignments were too hard.

History, the first class Jack had been in on his first day of school, continued to study pirates, but it was a bit different than what Jack knew. He could see how he was in an alternate timeline rather than just simply being in the future. Math wasn't just addition and subtraction, it was multiplication, division, and algebra. They all looked like jumbled numbers and letters together, and he was expected to know how to solve them all. English would have been easy, but some of the vocabulary had not been invented until after the 1700's and many of the words he knew had not been used in centuries. Spelling was a lot more expected in this time as well as dictionaries were only invented just over a century after Jack's existence. Jack was used to spelling words simply for how they sounded and many of his assignments were marked off for spelling and grammar errors, not to mention the fact Jack's style of handwriting and sentence structuring was completely out of date and his work was barely legible. He also had an episode in Science when he accidentally spilled a test tube and he was thrown into the emergency shower. He did okay in a couple of other classes, but the worst part of it all was homework. _Why do work at home when we already do it in class?_ thought Jack.

He did not attend many classes time after time as he skipped with his friends to drink or vape by the dumpsters, or they went down the street to McDonald's. A couple of the days, Teague pulled Jack out early to bring him back to the hospital for follow up appointments, which Jack learned he was deathly afraid of needles.

At home, Jack would always lock himself in his room away from his family. Being stubborn, he refused to learn the technology he had in front of him. He spent his time sleeping and looking through things in his room. He found toys and books he never owned before, and photos from memories he never had. He later even built a little LEGO set that had been sitting in the box collecting dust in his closet for who knows how long. However, he ran out of things to do on his room and became bored, so he finally began to teach himself how to use modern technology starting with the phone.

He had already browsed through some apps such as Facebook and Instagram, but he never bothered to look through all of them and learn all the ins-and-outs of his phone.

Jack studied the camera app. All the buttons on the screen were confusing and he couldn't fully grasp what all the different functions were meant to do. He also browsed his camera roll, but most of them weren't that much different from what he had on Facebook and Instagram. However he had nudes of Anne and some other girls he didn't know, which he had mixed feelings about. He briefly looked through some photo editing apps, which he didn't want to bother to learn. He opened the clock app, the calendar, and some others until he came upon the notepad.

A page of folders opened on the notepad and every folder he opened had a list of notes. He didn't have very many notes, but it was enough for him to eagerly read through some of them, curious of what was in the head of the other version of himself. It almost seemed like a Captain's Log of some sort like he had back in his old time, except the notes were much more random. A few were lists of things without context, such as wishlists for things he wanted, lists of favorite songs, and passwords for all his social media. Others were short jot-out thoughts. Some of them were whole entries.

_"I've come onto dear old Notepad here to tell one of my greatest life achievements I've just done. I might post about it on Facebook or something because it's so great..."_

Jack was intrigued.

_"I was just downstairs eating some mac & cheese I made and drinking soda, and believe me, what came out of me was one of the biggest, longest burps I've ever done. I heard Uncle Jack react from the backyard, and then I heard my neighbor from ACROSS THE STREET yell at me. I'm laughing so hard! Teague is pissed." _

Jack rolled his eyes, however it still got a good chuckle out of him. He didn't know what more to expect from the other him. He opened up another one. To his surprise, it was a more serious one.

_"Well that's it, Notepad. There goes life.. My entire family is piss drunk again, and I think a couple of them are on drugs. And they won't let ME drink so I gotta deal with them while I'm sober (I can only drink behind their back). I got some weed but it just feels like getting drunk without the self confidence. Grandmama and McFlemming are fighting and throwing glass bottles down stairs, and I can hear Teague trying to break it up, two of my uncles are passed out, and Valerie is banging on my door yelling at me about bullshit. I don't even know where Aunt Hazel and the kids are. And to add that Teague got on my ass yesterday about my makeup (like always), like come on..._

_And yet everyone asks me why I'm the bad guy, why I'm failing classes, and why I'm constantly ditching, starting fights out at the courtyard, and getting detention or suspended. Hell the teachers and other dickhead kids are usually the ones starting the fights (the only one I have to admit I start fights with is Fitzy and that's because he's an annoying asshole), and I literally can't do class. I'm smart, as far as I've heard, but I can't even focus in these bloody classes. Nobody gets what's going on in my head because I'm the asshole, and why the hell would I express my feelings anyway? That's shit that the oversensitive do. I'm probably gonna see if I can get Anne to buy me a drink tomorrow. I'm gonna really need it..."_

Perplexed by what he read, Jack quickly closed the app. It was a lot like a vision of his own life. Even the time he spent at home for the first week recovering and all the times after school, it wasn't that bad. It was pretty rough for sure, but it surprisingly wasn't too terrible. Maybe it was because he just came back from the hospital and his family went a bit easy around the him for a while.

Jack looked through the social media apps he hadn't opened yet. One was TikTok. He scrolled through the "For You Page" and he was greeted by fifteen second to minute long videos of people around his age dancing or doing funny skits. Upon swiping, he found out that like Facebook and Instagram, he also had an account on there under the same name as his Instagram, "captain.sparrow." He scrolled down his page, but he didn't open any of the videos as he had enough of seeing himself. He didn't have very many videos anyway.

Another was Snapchat, which was practically the same as Instagram Stories he saw before.

Then there was Tumblr, which was nothing more than a blogging site. He noticed he had an account on there as well, but it hadn't been active in a few years.

One that Jack found particularly interesting was YouTube, which was just a place to search for and watch videos.

The last one that stood out to Jack was Reddit. Reddit was basically full of message boards and discussions. Through Reddit, Jack realized he could use the internet for his own benefit as a way of finding out how to get back to his own time. He found a subreddit called _"r/timetravel"_ where people tell their experiences with time traveling. Most of the posts seemed to have more prophecies and paradoxes than actual proof of time travel. Some of the posts seemed like a total joke to him. He also looked through other discussion boards about multiple universes and came upon _"r/Glitch_in_the_Matrix"_ , where people recounted weird experiences where their current timeline seemed to have changed in little but noticeable ways, things disappearing and reappearing, and other events that could not be explained. All the experiences he read did not fully match his own and he could not find a single explanation to what happened to him. He had an urge to make a post on there, but he decided against it since his story seemed too outlandish.

He felt like he was onto something when it came to finding out how to go back home.

Jack opened up his laptop for the first time since he came home from the hospital. This time, it lead him to a screen of a scenic background with a box to enter a password. Jack went back to his notepad on his phone and found his list of passwords. He unlocked his way into the computer, slowly clicking one key at a time, and a picture of a ship on the sea appeared on screen. A couple apps popped up of Discord and Skype. Jack examined the mouse and figured out how to turn it on, and closed the apps.

He then opened multiple windows of different folders and browsers until he came upon Chrome. All that appeared on the window was "Google" and a little search box below. The boxes below said "Google Search" and "I'm Feeling Lucky." Jack typed away on the search box, once again clicking one key at a time. He couldn't figure out how to capitalize letters. The first thing he searched for on Google was "how to write on a computer."

Jack had spent countless hours searching up alternate timelines, parallel universes, and different worlds, and nothing seemed to be anything like his own. Some even only listed articles and videos of unrelated songs and television shows.

He thought back to his conversation with Tia Dalma.

_"You were sent 'ere by him and the only way to get back is to face him where him first met."_

_"There is more than one universe, Witty Jack. Each one has a different version of you. You crossed worlds wit' another version of you when you were sent 'ere. If you don't return home soon, you will lose all memory of your old life."_

_"Just follow de storm. You will find him."_

Who is "him?"

Anne had messaged Jack an invite to go out with her and Asher to Downtown Tampa that weekend, which Jack accepted despite his rough outing with her and his awkward meeting with Asher earlier that week. He thought he could use a bit of exploring since he hadn't been anywhere outside of the area which he lived, went to school at, and near where the mall was.

Throughout the few days, Jack had went through his closet and tried mixing and matching clothes to make different outfits. He even tried a few bandanas of different colors and prints. That day he chose a bandana with a mix of pastel reds and blues, along with a dark brown suede jacket, a white tank top, worn blue skinny jeans, a dark belt with a giant buckle, the same boots he wore to school, and various necklaces and rings. He even had the time to put some makeup on his eyes before Teague would catch him.

Asher pulled up in front of Jack's house with Anne in the car. The car had seen better days since he probably got it old and used, but it still ran well. Anne gave up the front seat for Jack which he gladly took.

"Hey, Jack! What's up?" Asher greeted as Jack climbed into the car.

"The sky," Jack responded, unsure of how to answer his question. Asher laughed.

"Oh, you're so adorable!" Anne cried as she threw her arms around him from the seat behind him.

"So how exactly are we going to get there, mate?" Jack asked, gently ripping Anne's arms off of him.

"I have my GPS on my phone set for the parking garage near the convention center," Asher replied, "but I'm gonna head the long way down Nebraska to avoid traffic and the toll road. We're gonna have to deal with these bitch-ass traffic lights though."

"Cool, we can listen to some music on the way," Anne said. She grabbed her phone and the cord from her purse and leaned over to plug her phone into the stereo next to Jack. She then searched YouTube on her phone and pulled up a song. The very beginning played cheerfully for a few seconds, and then the bass dropped.

Asher's jaw dropped. "Oh no, you didn't!" he exclaimed, recognizing the song.

"Yes I did! Remember this from last year?" Anne smiled.

They began to sing along.

_"This is the worst team I have ever played with in my life,_

_When we finally get on the point, everyone dies,_

_I understand that every now and then a team won't click?_

_When it comes to you, I don't think I can sympathize,_

_You should've picked Mercy!_

_You should've picked any kind of support,_

_We ended up losing, and it's all your fault,_

_You should learn how this game works,_

_You should've been helping..."_

Jack watched in confusion as they sang. "Okay, okay. That's fun, but could we leave now before me da' changes his mind about letting me go and comes out here?"

"All right," Asher said. "Let's go now." He then pushed on the gas and drove off, turning down the next road.

"By the way," Asher added. "We're also going to meet up with my partner. I don't know where yet so I'll hit him up when we get there."

Jack raised an eyebrow in response.

Most of the trip went all the way down an avenue, passing all different kinds of restaurants, stores, churches, parks, bus stops, gas stations, salons and barber shops, and quite a few auto shops and repair centers.

The further down the road they went, the more of the city revealed itself on the horizon through the buildings and parks. There were tall buildings made of glass and concrete seen from afar. Jack had never seen anything like it. He stared at them as they appeared bigger the closer they got.

Before they made their next turn, a long red and white striped arm came down in front of the car ahead of them and yellow lights flashed next to it.

"Fuck," Asher swore through his teeth, "Now we gotta wait for this damn train."

"Huh?" Jack uttered.

A loud horn sounded, nearly making him jump. Then, a series of large connected metal vehicles sped across the road right in front of them. Jack gazed at the thing as it sped by. When the last car finally passed, it stopped just past the large building that was across the tracks.

The lights then stopped flashing and the arm lifted, letting the waiting cars on the road pass through.

"Uh, stupid question, mate, but what was _that_?" Jack questioned in shock.

Asher looked back and exchanged equally confused looks with Anne, wondering if Jack was being genuine.

"Uh, _that_ was a train," Asher said.

"But what is it?"

"It's Amtrak."

"No, I mean what's a train?"

"What?" Asher was taken back by Jack's lack of knowledge of a basic everyday thing, and having met Jack a few times already, he never acted this way before.

Anne was also surprised, but she knew how strange he acted the last few times she had seen him or spoken with him. "Are you serious?"

"Ugh, yes," Jack said, exasperated. "I know I seem all..." he tapped his head with his finger, "but please indulge in my stupidity for one day. Savvy?"

Asher shrugged. He may have assumed Jack was under the influence of something.

"Well, um," Anne never had to explain to someone what a train was. "A train is a line of giant connected cars that carry passengers, cargo, and stuff, for a long distance. That one is Amtrak."

"Ah," Jack said, finally making sense of it. He pondered what he could do with that information.

They turned down a road that led to another road they turned on, which Anne pointed out is right by a channel. They drove by many parking lots, and even more people walking around with families and luggage.

"Are they going on the train?" Jack asked.

"No, they're going on the cruise ships," Anne replied. "The terminals are on the other side of the parking lots."

_Ships?_ That sounded like it was right up his alley!

"Oh look! There's one right now!" Anne pointed to a cruise ship that was docked behind the terminal. It was a huge, massive ship with tons and tons of floors. Nothing like the sailing ships Jack had seen. In fact, it had no sails. He wondered how it got around.

"Where does this cruise ship go?" Jack asked.

"They go to a lot of places," Anne explained. "The Florida Keys, the Bahamas, the Caribbean, the Panama Canal, and even to Europe."

"Wait, you can go on a cruise ship to the _Caribbean_?!" Jack blurted out, almost lifting himself off his seat.

"Yeah."

Within minutes, they drove by a large building on the river side that was a few floors full of cars. They turned left and immediately found an entrance into the building.

Asher was told his partner was in front of the convention center down a couple of blocks from the parking garage. The group waited at the corner to cross the first street. Jack watched as the cars flew past him in multiple directions. He knew one step on the road, unless it was their turn to cross, could lead to injury or death, as what the other version of himself might have learned, in which he himself had suffered the consequences for.

They crossed the next street to the Tampa Convention Center, a large building which Jack looked upon in fascination the same way as he did at the mall. They turned left and walked along the front of the building, only not far down they spotted a young man, about Asher's age, standing right by the sign near the first set of stairs. He noticed them and waved with a smile. Asher smiled and waved back as he ran up to this mysterious man.

Jack and Anne caught up to him after the two men exchanged hugs and a kiss.

"Hey guys, you remember my boyfriend, Kris, right?" Asher said cheerfully.

"Hey! Yeah, I remember!" Anne said with a smile, giving Kris a quick hug.

"It's so good to see you!" Kris greeted as he hugged back. While Asher's hair was dyed to black, Kris's hair was naturally brown, a few shade's lighter than Jack's.

Everything clicked in Jack's head. This was the partner Asher had mentioned.

Jack grinned from ear to ear and held his hand out for a shake. "Well, mate, it's great to mee—see you again!"

The two couples walked further down along the convention center until they got to the end, where they were met with open water where the channels and the river met. They stayed at the end for a few minutes where they watched the boats go up and down, and right in front of them was a dock with a few little slips filled with different types of boats, with and without sails.

Jack looked ahead at the buildings across the river and something docked right there immediately caught his eye.

Jack's jaw dropped as he pointed across the river. "It's a ship—a pirate ship."

It was indeed a pirate ship—a lot like one from his time! The other three looked over and didn't seem phased.

"Yeah, of course, Jack," Anne said. Jack turned to her. "That's the _Gasparilla_."

"Wow," Jack turned away and looked back at the ship. "They just let her sit there like that?"

"No, they take it out for the Gasparilla Pirate Festival," Anne replied. "Remember we went earlier this year?"

"Uh, yeah. We did," Jack nodded. He went quiet as he bit his tongue, preventing him from making any remarks about not remembering or being from a different time period or alternate reality.

The group walked all the way down the Riverwalk past hotels, restaurants, and a long park. At the end was the History Museum that they went in and explored, sheltering them from one of Florida's usual out-of-the-blue tropical rainstorms. Jack was definitely intrigued by the pirate exhibit!

After the museum and lunch, all four of them piled in the car with the guys in the front and Jack and Anne in the back, and they all took a drive through downtown. This time, Jack got to see the giant buildings up close, looming right above him. Jack rolled his window down and stuck his head out like a dog, looking up at the buildings, catching the wind, and breathing in the fresh air and car exhaust.

The rest of the day was spent going to various stores, eating out at Olive Garden, a quite chaotic trip to Walmart, and they went back to Asher's apartment that night where they watched a movie. The entire day was so eventful and memorable, Jack almost forgot about the current situation he was in. That was until he snuck back in his house at 12AM.

The car pulled up in front of Jack's house. As Jack climbed out, Anne climbed out with him and pulled him to the side.

Anne leaned closely to him. "Jack, I don't know if this is some kind of game your playing or what, but it's getting old," she whispered.

"What? What do you mean, lass?" Jack asked.

"If all this is for real and you're being genuine, please...go get some help," Anne said. She gave him a peck on the lips and returned to the car. His friends then drove off into the darkness.

Jack sighed as he gazed down the street for a minute before turning to open the gate to the house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **(A/N: I originally wanted to gloss over the day in downtown, but I decided I could use it as an opportunity for Jack to learn more about modern living and explore the city.**
> 
> **Anyway, thanks for reading my first update in a while! I want to announce that I just launched BHS "merch" on my RedBubble shop so everyone can show their Barnacle High pride! I have both light and dark variations of three versions of the BHS logo on t-shirts, stickers, buttons, notebooks, and more! The link to my Barnacle High collection is on my profile!)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **(A/N: Yes! Finally an update for this story! I began writing one of the scenes the morning of the day I went to the beach and the ocean decided I needed a swim....with all of my pirate garb and my bag with my phone, wallet, masks, and everything else in it. My phone was pretty busted, and I lost my work because it was written after my phone was last backed up. It took me FOREVER to rewrite the scene because when it's out of my head, it's out of my head. I was able to somewhat quickly finish the story after I finally rewrote it. The story is finally majorly moving forward too so hope you enjoy!**
> 
> **One more thing as a little warning, this chapter is going to talk a lot about mental health and disorders, which may be uncomfortable to read. It also may not be accurate since although I did research, I am no professional and it is dramatized for the sake of the story. Just wanted to disclaim that.)**

_ Wait...what am I doing here? _

Jack woke up to a bright light. He sat up and looked around. He realized everything around him was nothing but pure white. The ground he laid on was almost the consistency of gravel or sandpaper, but it was still white. He was surrounded by absolutely nothing but white.

_ How did I get here? _

Jack slowly stood up onto his feet and gazed around. It was all white and noting. Not a single soul anywhere to be seen.

_ Why am I alone? Why am I so alone... Alone.... _

He turned around and he was suddenly met with an unusually giant stone-wooden door towering over him. It was a lone door standing in the middle of nothingness.

_ Hm, what's this? _

Jack cautiously approached the door. Once he was close enough, he lifted an arm and began to knock.

_ Knock, knock, knock. _

Everything was silent and still for a moment. Jack backed away in case anything were to shoot out or grab him. Suddenly, the door began to slowly open outward. As it creaked open, a godly light shone through the ever-growing crack of the door. The light was so bright, it was almost blinding. Jack shielded his eyes with his arm, and he shut his eyes tightly, almost afraid to see what was on the other side of the door.

Jack shot up from his bed wide-eyed, sweating, and breathing heavily. He never had a dream like this since he awoke into this new world. He ran his fingers through his damp hair as he calmed down.

Once he gathered his bearings, Jack dragged himself out of bed and opened the nearby window, letting the fresh air and the smell of the late night rain into his room. He glanced over to his alarm clock. 2:46 AM. He knew he wasn't going to be able to fall asleep again at this point, at least not anytime soon.

Jack walked over to his desk and sat down, opening his laptop. His laptop hadn't been completely turned off. While opening it, the light from the screen hurt his eyes in the pitch blackness of his room, the only bit of light being from the moonlight glowing dully through the window.

He reopened the Google Chrome browser, which had more than several open tabs of searches. Trains, Amtrak, and the Tampa Union Station. Cruise ships and the Caribbean. Maps of the state of Florida. Jack knew he still had a bit more research that needed to be done before he could form a plan.

Jack strutted down the halls of Barnacle High School, completely owning the campus. The tails of a multicolored patterned bandana flew behind him. One hand was shoved into one of the pockets of his jeans that matched his denim jacket, while the other hand held a notebook. The little strip of his red and white sash hung from his belt like always. It was break time and the halls were crowded with people. The hum of students around him was ignored by determination as he made a B line for the library.

The doors of the library flung open as the students who were last-minute-studying or browsing through books looked up. Jack walked in, letting the door close behind him. Everyone stared at him and made little whispers to each other. His eyes darted around as he walked through the library. Each person he made eye contact with quickly looked away and went back to doing their thing.

Jack jauntily strode up to the desk and cleared his throat to get the attention of the librarian.

The librarian looked up from her computer and adjusted her glasses. "Yes?"

"Excuse me, lady. I suppose you could help me with those computers over there, could you?" Jack said, pointing to the computer table nearby.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Jack Sparrow," Jack said.

"May I see your school I.D.?

Jack pulled his wallet out of his pocket and skimmed through it. He drew out a little card with a picture and the school's name. "Is this it?" He handed the card to her.

The librarian took the card and adjusted her glasses again as she studied it. She nodded and handed the card back to him. "You're never in here. What did you need again?"

"I need some help with those computers," Jack explained. "I got to print whatever is on them onto paper, and I have less than fifteen minutes to do so. Can you show me how?"

"Yes, of course."

And within less than fifteen minutes later, the school bell rang and Jack stepped out of the library with a notebook stuffed with papers. Jack decided to not go to class again. He made his way down the halls to his locker to put away his notebook.

Suddenly, a door swung open right in front of him. Startled, the papers flew out of Jack's notebook. Jack cursed as he scrambled to pick up the papers and he shoved them back into his notebook. Then, he looked up at the open door, which appeared to be the janitor's closet, and standing there was finally a new familiar face.

"Well, I'll be! It's Jack Sparrow!"

"Gibbs?"

It was none other than Joshamee Gibbs, Teague's longtime friend—at least in Jack's world.

"Haven't caught ya down these halls in a while!" Joshamee smiled.

"Well, I got hit by a car not long ago and weird things have been happening since," Jack said. "Do you happen to know anything about time travel, multiple universes, or alternate timelines and the such?"

"Aye, of course!" Joshamee replied. "I've heard many stories about them."

"I've been trying to find some answers about that," Jack brought the notebook to his chest. "I've tried sort of telling people, or perhaps hinting at it, but well...they wouldn't really know."

"If yer trying to switch universes, that's some risky business, lad," Joshamee said darkly. "Once you go, you never come back."

"But I'm trying to get back to my old one," Jack said. "Things haven't been the same since."

"I wish ya luck on that one," Joshamee took a metal flask from the breast pocket of his jumpsuit and took a swig. "I've got to head to the gym. Some kid threw up again." He grabbed his equipment and shut the closet door, locking it with a jingling ring of keys. Before he walked away, he turned to Jack once more. "Be careful out there."

Jack was quite relieved to see that Joshamee Gibbs hadn't changed all too much in this world.

It was lunch time and everyone was packed into the building as it rained outside. Jack and his friends sat at the table towards the middle of the cafeteria with the popular kids.

"Hey, did you hear that Jack went to the library during break?" one of the popular girls whispered to Devin.

"Jack went to the library?" Devin said a little too loudly.

"Wait, he did?" River turned to Jack. "Why did you go to the library?"

Jack looked up from a tray of a pretty disgusting sloppy joes sandwich he was examining. "It's just a library, mate. Why are you lot making a big deal about it?"

"Well, only nerds go there," Finn said with a low voice.

"Isn't being a 'nerd' like the cool thing nowadays?" asked the girl who clearly was only in the group because she was friends with one of the popular girls. "Like, they go to Comic Con and stuff."

"No, those are geeks. Big difference," Devin replied.

"Aren't they just the same shit?" Finn asked.

"No, they really aren't," the same girl said.

While his friends were bickering about the difference between nerds and geeks, Jack swiveled around on the bench, facing the half of the cafeteria. Jack spotted Fitzwilliam sitting with his equally snobby friends. A sly smirk spread across his face.

Jack stood up and began to walk across the cafeteria towards them when an announcement came on the intercom.

"Jack Sparrow, please come to the office. You need to be seen."

The cafeteria went silent as everyone turned to Jack. Little whispers, murmurs, and some "Ooo"s could be heard. No one should have really been surprised though.

"What are you looking at?" Jack said aloud. "Could you spare me the humiliation and mind your own business?"

Jack stepped into the office and walked over to the desk. "Um, I'm supposed to be seen here?"

The secretary behind the desk looked up at him from her computer. "Jack Sparrow?"

"Aye."

"Go have a seat, I'll let them know you're here."

Jack took a seat as the secretary walked out of the room. While he waited, he stared at the posters pinned around the wall. Some of them were about healthy eating and some were about mental health. Others were motivational posters with cheesy quotes. He rolled his eyes.

A minute later, the secretary walked back in and ushered him out of the room. She led him down the hall to a conference room a few doors down.

Jack's eyes went wide as he stepped into the room. There was a long table and all of his teachers sat along it, and an unknown man, who seemed a bit familiar, was sitting at one end. The other end was empty and, to Jack's horror, Teague sat in the seat closest to it.

"Come in, Jackie," Teague said. "Take a seat."

Jack cautiously walked over and took a seat at the end. "Why are you all here?" He looked over at the mysterious man at the other end of the table. "Who is he?"

"Jackie, that's Principal Norrington," Teague said. "I'm very sure you know who he is by now since you see him a lot." He said the last part under his breath.

Jack turned pale. " _ Principal _ Norrington?!" He was shocked. He never thought he would see Admiral Norrington, the man who tried to have him killed, again in this world. He slowly sunk back in his seat as he stared ahead.

"Do you know why we called you here, Jack Sparrow?" Principal Norrington asked in a serious tone.

"No," Jack answered.

"I've gotten complaints from your teachers and I called your dad, who's told me some quite interesting things as well," Norrington said. He adjusted his glasses and opened a file in front of him. "You were out of school for over a week due to an accident you had on the 5th. Ditching classes, being disruptive, getting into fights with other students, drinking and smoking on campus; that all seems like normal behavior from you. But since you came back from school, you've been failing classes more than before and you're showing signs of well...strange behavior."

"Strange behavior?" Jack interrupted, acting offended.

"I've spoke with all your teachers on the phone and today in this meeting and we've decided to suspend you until you get help. Please go collect your things from your locker and go home with your dad."

Just then, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Norrington closed the file and all the teachers followed the principal out of the room to their classes.

Jack sat in the car next to Teague, who drove in silence. All that could be heard was the patters of rain on the windshield and the wipers gliding over the glass. Although Jack had been in the future for only over a couple weeks, he was starting to become familiar with the area he was in, so he realized he wasn't going in the right direction when Teague drove past the turn-off he'd make to go home.

"Wait, where are we going?" Jack asked, confused.

Teague took a moment to answer. He took a deep breath. "Jackie,...ever since you were in the hospital, you keep going on about this pirate shit and not knowing what modern shit is. This ain't some memory shit anymore if it even was in the first place. I don't know if you're doing this for attention or if you're actually living in this goddamn fantasy of yours, but you gotta snap out of it."

Jack opened his mouth to retort, but Teague quickly put his hand up, motioning him to zip-it.

Several minutes later, Teague made a turn to a parking lot of a somewhat large, tan-ish building. Jack took a glance at the first sign and all that he read was "Behavioral Health Center."  _ This can't be good, _ Jack thought in dread.

Jack and Teague ran through the rain under an umbrella down the parking lot to the building. The room they walked into was all white inside with chairs aligned around the room. Teague pushed Jack to sit down as he went to check him in at the desk. There were people of all ages in the waiting room. Young adults, older adults, there were even a few other teenagers and a couple of children.

"Hey," a boy about Jack's age nearby whispered to him. Jack looked over. "Were you the guy who drilled all the holes in the wall between the locker rooms at the District-Wide Olympics at Hillsborough High last year?"

"Uh," Jack didn't know if it was true, but it sounded like it was something he would do. "I guess."

"Ha! Nice, dude!" the boy laughed.

A nurse came in with the boy's parents and called his name. The boy got up and followed the nurse and his parents through the door, and Teague came back and sat next to Jack. A few minutes later, the same nurse came back in. "Jack Sparrow." Jack nervously got up with Teague and went over to the nurse.

"The doctor wants to speak to your dad first. We'll call you in in a few minutes," the nurse said.

Jack rolled his eyes and walked back over to his seat.

A few minutes later, the nurse came back in with Teague and called him over. Teague sat down as Jack got up and followed the nurse out of the waiting room. The nurse led him down a white hall and through one of the doors. The female doctor sitting at the desk smiled as Jack walked in.

"Hi, Jack. I'm Dr. Smyth," she greeted. "Please come and sit down so we can talk."

Jack sat down as she typed on her computer.

"So, I talked to your dad a few minutes ago," she stopped typing and looked over to Jack. "and he told me about some things and I thought you would tell me yourself."

"Tell you what?" Jack asked speculatively.

"Just about how you're feeling, and about you're 'unusual situation'. This is a judgement-free room."

Jack thought for a moment. "Well..." He was reluctant to tell her. "This is going to sound well... _ mad _ , but...I'm actually from the 1700s." He then began to explain. "I was the captain of the mighty  _ Barnacle _ , which was sunk by those idiot Navy and Company bastards. So I was aboard my former first mate's mommy's ship when a storm came along. Me being me, I was steering her ship and the boom—the boom came right at me and hit me! Then I woke up in the hospital here without any idea of what happened. And with that, the rest is history. Savvy?"

The doctor nodded as she listened. "Ah, well it does sound like an unusual situation," She went back to looking at her computer. "So according to your previous records, you were diagnosed with ADHD..."

Jack was staring at a worm on the plant sitting on the desk, clearly not listening. He looked up when he realized she was talking to him. "What?"

"...and depression," the doctor continued.

"Depression? Why would I be depressed?"

"...and you also have a history of alcohol and substance abuse." she finished. She looked at Jack directly in the eyes. "Jack, you are a minor. If you continue to drink and do drugs, you and you're family are going to be in serious trouble," she told him in a stern voice.

She looked back at her computer and continued typing. After a minute, she stopped typing and turned to Jack, though her eyes were still gazing back and forth at him and the computer. "So, according to what you've told me, you possibly have bipolar disorder, depersonalization disorder, or schizotypal personality disorder."

Jack shrugged. "Sorry, mate, I have no idea what any of those are."

"Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder which is accompanied by mania, which often involves sleepiness, hallucinations, psychosis, delusions, and paranoia," the doctor informed. "Depersonalization disorder is the feeling of being detached or disconnected from one's body. And schizotypal personality disorder makes someone show unusual thinking patterns and behaviors. Although we have to do further evaluation to diagnose you as this is only based on one session."

Jack frowned. "You think my story is crazy, too?"

"No, not at all. It's very creative," she replied. "The concussion resulting from your accident could have changed the way your brain is wired. You probably also had one of these before, but the concussion further aggravated it."

She glanced back at her computer and typed a bit more again. She then looked back at Jack. "Jack, you are sixteen, right?" Jack nodded. "You are old enough to make your own decisions, so I'll give you two options. One, we'll admit you here for about a week for further evaluations and treatment. Two, you go home, you come back twice a week, and we put you on an antidepressant and Adderall. If Two doesn't see any results, we'll have to turn to One."

Jack shifted uncomfortably as he thought. His freedom that he desired so much was already in danger from being stuck in an alternate timeline with no way back if he can't find a way back in time, it would be worse if he was locked up in a hospital. They could keep him for longer than a week because he wouldn't get better, because he  _ wasn't _ sick. He wouldn't find a way back to his own timeline if he was in the hospital for weeks, or months.

Jack shook his head. "No. I can't do that. I can't stay here."

The doctor nodded. "All right, that's fine." She paused as she typed on her computer again. "You can leave and check out now. It's good to meet you, Jack," she smiled as she sat up with her hand out.

Jack slowly shook her hand. "All right."

Jack flew through the waiting room door and headed straight for the exit.

"Hey, I need to check you out," Teague said, catching Jack before he walked past him.

"Do I have to be involved?" Jack asked.

"Well, no," Teague answered with a sigh. Before Jack turned, Teague stopped him once more. "If you're waiting in the car, take the keys." Teague tossed the keys over to Jack. Jack caught them with ease and made his way to the exit again.

Jack laid in his bed as he stared up at the ceiling distraught. Teague had forced him to take medicine he didn't need. He didn't feel anything from them, at least not yet, but he felt like the world was against him. What if he really was going crazy? What if his entire life in the 1700s Caribbean was something he dreamed up after his head injury? It couldn't have been a dream. The relationships he had, the physical pain he felt from the fights he was in, the inner pain he felt watching his ship sink down into the depths of the sea, the burn of the rum down his throat, the pain in his teeth from biting down on those hard tacks, the rocking of the ship, the creaking of the old wooden deck beneath his feet, the wind blowing his hair, the spray of the sea on his face, the feeling of freedom; it all felt too real. He missed it all.

Jack got up from his bed and walked over to his closet. He sifted through his closet, going through hangers and hangers of flannels, leathers, denims, and t-shirts. At the very end, he found a white shirt hanging. He pulled it out as he examined it. It was long-sleeved, and they bellowed out and came together at the cuffs—a lot like the sleeves from the shirts of his time. Though this shirt didn't have a collar, and small little buttons went down the middle. The fabric also felt very thin and fragile. This was obviously a woman's blouse, but it worked.

"Perfect," Jack said, grinning.

He grabbed a few other things out of his closet and went to try them on. He then topped off his look with eyeliner, a necklace with a pirate coin in the middle, and random rings.

Jack walked to his phone sitting on his desk and started to play a song. He looked at himself in the full length mirror. Along with the blouse, he wore black skinny jeans with holes down the legs, a studded belt, the red and white piece of "sash" pulled through it, and of course, his red bandana that he wore on his first day of school. He stared at himself, hoping he could see the old self again. He looked similar, but it just wasn't the same. It wasn't him. After a few moments, he turned back to his phone and turned the volume of the music up louder.

He slowly danced around the room in a whole different world, picturing what it would be like to be out at sea again. He imagined being aboard the  _ Barnacle _ . Being at the helm of his ship smelling the salty air. His traitorous crew mate Fitzwilliam arguing with him about his position as captain. The yucky-beastie-cat-thing Constance clawing at his boot while his first mate Arabella is tearing her off. His Creole mate Jean asking him what his favorite Cajun dish was for the twentieth time. And his Mayan friend Tumen asking him where they were headed. That was the good ol' days. His ship was nothing more than an old fishing boat and his crew wasn't perfect, or faithful, but that was the most he felt free. Free from a structured life. Free from piracy. Free from the torturings of Grandmama and being bullied by cousin Valerie. Free from the expectations of the Man-Who-Might-Me-Father.

The door suddenly slammed open, shaking Jack out of his fantasy. He quickly ran to his phone and shut the music off as Teague walked in. Jack stood there silently as Teague sized him up, taking a good look at his rather piratey outfit.

Teague frowned. "Jackie, I thought I told you to cut the pirate shit!"

"You can't tell me what to do," Jack hissed.

"I can tell you what to do because I'm your parent, boy!" Teague retorted. He blew up. "You are too old for this imagination shit! You gotta quit living in this damn fantasy and start living in the  _ real world _ ! YOU. ARE. NOT. A. PIRATE! You are not in the Caribbean! You are not in 17-whatever-the-fuck! This is 2019! This is  _ real life _ ! You gotta stop this shit and start focusing on real life!...."

Teague spent the next few minutes berating and yelling at him. As the seconds went on, Jack slowly shut down more and more. Blood rushed to his head. Words began to bleed together as rage filled him.

"I am calling the Behavioral Center right now and I'm bringing you down tomorrow morning!" Teague finished before he quickly turned to the door.

Jack's eyes went wide as he panicked. "Wait, no!" Jack cried, running after Teague. The door slammed right in his face. He stood at the door as he shook with rage.

A minute later, he could hear Teague talking on the phone from downstairs. "Hello? This is Edward Teague. I'm speaking for my son, Jack Sparrow...."

"NO!" Jack started kicking at the door in anger. He kicked and he kicked, almost kicking in another hole.

"Keep kicking, boy!" Teague yelled out. "I'm gonna tear that goddamn door down!"

Jack grabbed his phone from his desk and threw it on the floor, which miraculously didn't break, and his bandana following after. He then went to the door and gave it one last kick. He put his back against the door and slid down onto the floor, rubbing his eyes with his fingers.

"Yes, I know he only started taking the pills today, but he ain't gonna quit it...."

"I'm going to drive him over first thing tomorrow morning...."

He wrapped his arms around his knees and buried his face. "I've got to get out of here," Jack grumbled, his hoarse voice muffled underneath his arms. "I want to go home...."


	7. Chapter 7

Jack spent the next three hours sulking and thinking about what to do as he listened to the rain pouring outside. He needed to run away and find a way back to his timeline. He planned everything, but he never thought about how to sneak out.

He left his room for the first time in a while, sneaking through his bedroom door. Jack tiptoed down the hall and peered around the wall down the stairs. From what he could see upstairs, whatever family that hadn't left to go to their respective homes was passed out around the living room, and Teague was probably asleep in his room.

Jack skimmed through his closet and grabbed a white t-shirt with a sparrow on it and changed. He then pulled out a red and black flannel and threw it on over it. He picked up his backpack and unzipped it, turning it over and dumping all its contents onto the bed. Amongst the books, papers, and supplies, the notebook full of paper, his plans, fell out from the backpack. Jack picked up the notebook and straightened out the papers. He stared at it for a moment before putting it back in his backpack. He grabbed the set of clothes he wore when he got out of the hospital, which he had been sleeping in, and shoved it in the backpack. After packing a few other things, Jack glanced over to the flouncy pirate blouse he just laid out on the bed . He shrugged as he grabbed it and shoved it in.

Jack went to the mirror to clean up his eyeliner a little bit and he tied his bandana on. He then took a couple beads sitting on the shelf and twisted a lock of his hair, threading the beads through like how he did with the beads Tia Dalma had given him on his first quest. Finally, he put on a pair of black combat boots and a leather jacket, and he zipped up his backpack and pulled it over his shoulders.

"I'm ready!" Jack beamed. His face then dropped a little. "But I need food."

Jack snuck down the stairs into the kitchen and went through the cabinets, careful not to wake any of his family. After packing some fruit, bars, and bottled water, he began to walk away until he stopped at the liquor cabinet. He eyeballed the glorious liquor bottles through the glass as they stared back at him. He hadn't paid much attention to the cabinet since his first day at his new home.

He stepped towards the cabinet and wrapped his fingers around the padlock. The padlock and the keyhole was quite small, too small for any key he knew of that could fit in there...unless.

Jack tiptoed through the living room and opened the front door. He quietly whistled, and the head of the sandy colored pooch popped out of the doghouse nearby.

"Come here to Jackie you blasted mutt," Jack coaxed in a low voice.

The dog trotted out of its home to Jack. It sniffed and licked Jack's hand a little. Jack ruffled it's head a bit as he grabbed the tag of the collar. He examined the key-shaped tag before pulling it off the collar.

_Sailor. Hm, nice name,_ Jack thought.

He went back to the cabinet with the key in hand. He held the key in position with one hand and the padlock in the other, hoping it would work, and slowly slid the key in and and turned it. _Click._ The lock popped open and he unhooked it off the handles.

It worked! Jack smiled as he opened the cabinet doors. He finally had access to all the rum this place could offer. His eyes quickly skimmed across the rows of bottles. He didn't have much time to browse through them all and choose, so he grabbed the regular ol' Captain Morgan he had seen in stores and squeezed it into his backpack. Then he closed the cabinet doors, locked it up, and placed the key on the cabinet.

Now he was ready. Jack tiptoed through house once more, this time into the garage. He flipped on the light. He squinted as his eyes adjusted to the brightness, scanning around the garage. A few bicycles were resting against the wall together. The one off to the side was completely totaled. It was probably Jack's. He grabbed one of the undamaged bikes and slipped it out of the side door into the rain.

As soon as he stepped out through the gate and closed it, Jack turned around and took a deep breath of the fresh rainy air.

"Ah, this it it," Jack said with a smile. "One step closer to freedom."

He then looked down at the bike. Jack suddenly realized he had never ridden one before—not in his own lifetime. They likely weren't even invented yet in his time.

After spending a minute examining the bike and figuring out how it worked, Jack threw his leg over and hopped onto the seat. He pushed himself off with one foot and pressed his feet on the pedals, pushing them up and down as he rode through the stormy weather.

"Quite easy," Jack said. "I'm lucky to have good balance."

And thus he rode off to freedom.

Jack hopped off his bike as he approached the bus stop, which was just a lone sign at the side of the road. He stepped beside an older man next to the sign.

"Excuse me, good sir," Jack said with a quick bow. "Are you taking the bus, too?"

The man glanced over at him from under his umbrella. He huffed and looked away.

"Hey, how about we be bus buddies, mate?" Jack asked him with a smirk, jabbing the man's arm a little with an elbow.

The man sighed. "I'm just going to take an Uber."

He then walked away, leaving Jack to wait all by himself.

"Ah, this is very exciting!" Jack said to himself with a smile. "T'is going to be quite the adventure indeed!"

The bus arrived a few minutes later and stopped right in front of Jack. As Jack was about to step on the bus, the driver pointed to the front and told him to hang his bike outside. Jack struggled to hang the bike up at the front, and dropped cash in the machine as he climbed in. Before he could find a seat, the bus immediately moved forward.

"Woah!" Jack stumbled and caught himself with a railing. "Couldn't you wait until your passengers sit down, mate?" he called out to the driver.

The driver ignored him. Jack took a seat at any of the free seats, which was most of them since there were only a couple other people in the bus. Jack looked at his fellow passengers hoping to make conversation, but their eyes were glued to their phones. Jack pulled out his phone from his pocket and looked at it to seem normal, staring at the screen doing nothing.

Twenty minutes and over a dozen stops went by. Passengers came on and left, and Jack stayed seated, gazing back and forth at his phone and the digital signage near the driver. During the ride, the storm got even worse. Thunder boomed as the wind caused the bus to nearly swerve a few times, and rain pelted onto the roof of the bus. By this time, Jack was the only one on the bus with just a few more stops to get to the train station.

The driver stopped at the next bus stop and spoke through intercom. "We just received a notice that a tree fell across the road at Nebraska. There will be no further stops beyond this point. We apologize for the inconvenience."

Jack's eyes bulged out of his head as he looked up from his phone. He stood up and took a few steps towards the driver. "No! You can't stop here! Is there detour? I need to catch a train!"

"I can't do that," the driver responded. "It's too late to detour and the train station closed five hours ago."

Jack's heart dropped. "WHAT?! What am I going to do?!"

"Sorry, kid. Tough luck," the driver said with a shrug. He opened the back door and pointed for Jack to leave.

Jack slumped down and somberly exited the bus. The doors closed behind him and as the bus began to drive away, Jack realized something.

"MY BIKE!"

Jack ran down the sidewalk after the bus. "WAIT! STOP! I LEFT MY BIKE ON THE FRONT OF THE BUS!" He stopped at the corner, watching the bus drive away with the bike.

Just then, another bus sped by through a giant puddle on the road, covering Jack in dirty street rainwater.

Jack didn't know what to do. The last time he checked his phone, it was at fifteen percent battery, and there was no way he could call Teague to pick him up—he would be in huge trouble.

Jack angrily took off his backpack and threw it on the ground. " _BLAST IT!_ What did I do to be cursed like this?!" he screamed out to the heavens.

Thunder rolled again and a crash of lightening illuminated the sky. Jack went from beginning an adventure to freedom to being cold, wet, lost, and alone.

Jack walked across the street and down a few blocks, looking for a place to shelter himself from the storm. However, nothing was open. Just shops and restaurants closed for the night...and the one inn he found was already fully booked.

"How could I be such an bloody idiot and not look up what time the train station closes?" Jack mumbled, kicking a littered soda can down the sidewalk.

Just then, he looked up at the sign above him. _Tortuga Tavern._ Jack walked up to the window and cupped his hands against the glass, trying to see inside. The windows were too dark to see through. The "open" sign still hung from the door even though the windows were blackened, so he decided to give it a try. Jack grabbed the handle and pulled the door open with ease.

Not only was the Tortuga Tavern open, it was bustling with people, mostly big, muscular dudes, sports-heads, or men having a drink with the guys. The place had a slight nautical theme, but it mostly seemed to be a regular sports bar with flatscreens around the walls, pool tables, and tables and tables of these guys getting smashed.

Jack pushed through the crowd of beer-reeking men to get to the bar, hoping to get a good drink and spend the night there, or at least until it closed.

Suddenly, Jack slammed into something huge. As he stumbled back and looked up, the man he bumped into turned around, all seven feet and several hundred pounds looming over him. With the look in the man's stormy colored eyes, Jack could recognize him from anywhere.

"T...Torr—" Jack's jaw dropped as blood drained from his face.

"Long time no see, boy," the man grinned maniacally, slowly advancing towards Jack.

"Ah, heya, Tortsy!" Jack smiled nervously as he backed away. "Fancy seeing you here...considering you were supposed to be _dead_!"

Jack had faced Captain Torrents multiple times. In fact, Torrents was the first and _last_ pirate he had defeated during his first year at sea. The last Jack saw of him, Torrents was heading down to Davy Jones's Locker. So what could he be doing here?

"Oh, I didn't die," Torrents said. "I was sent to another universe to take care of some unfinished business," he swiped a pool cue from another man's hands and lifted it over Jack. "and that's why I sent _you_ here!"

As the pool cue came down, Jack side-stepped just in time. The stick whistled right past his ear...

...and hit the man behind him, breaking upon impact!

This other man turned around, looking just as angry as Torrents. He thought Jack was one who swung at him. "Hey! What the fuck are you doing, man?!"

The man finished the rest of his beer, and then chucked the empty glass right at Jack. Jack scooted away from the hurdling glass, which hit another man right behind him.

The entire Tortuga Tavern suddenly erupted into a barroom brawl filled with punches, groans, screams, yells, and hollers, and beer glasses, bottles, and broken pool cues flew around the room.

Jack was definitely no stranger to navigating these, but he was still caught in the middle with no way out,... _and_ with Torrents still after him.

With the broken pool cue in hand, Torrents lunged at Jack. Jack quickly found another half pool cue and held it up, blocking his attacker. The giant swung over and over again, and Jack continuously parried his attacks as if they were in a sword fight.

Just then, another drunk patron dove towards Jack. Jack leapt out of the way, just barely avoiding the collision, and his new attacker toppled into Torrents.

With his old enemy now engaged, Jack pulled on the straps of his backpack, turned around and surveyed the scene behind him.

"Well, there goes that," Jack said. "It appears I've started yet another bloody violent brawl."

Then, someone smashed a bottle against the wall right next to him. Jack swung around to see that the giant had risen behind him and he began to back away.

"Prepare to say your last words, boy," the former pirate said in a deadly voice, holding the broken bottle before him and pointing it at Jack.

"Uh...." Jack looked around, but he was surrounded by the fight on all sides, blocking the only exit from the bar.

Before he could think of a way out of this one, Torrents roared and bolted forward.

As Jack braced for the impact, a hand grabbed the handle of his backpack and yanked him out of the way. But it happened so quickly that Torrents kept running and crashed into a group of patrons battering each other near the wall.

The hand that grabbed Jack kept a very firm grip as it pulled him quickly through the crowd, ducking and avoiding the brawling drunkards. After a few near misses, Jack stumbled out the back door into an ally in the stormy tropical night.

It was raining much harder now, and the wind had picked up incredible speed. Jack turned to thank the person who saved him, but before he could, his eyes met with a pair of familiar fiery brown ones.


	8. Chapter 8

"Arabella?"

Arabella grabbed him by the front of his shirt and threw him against the building.

"Jack! What the fuck is wrong with you?! What makes you think you can walk into my dad's bar and start a fight? Couldn't you pick a place that's _nicer_ , whose customers wouldn't _wreck_ the place?!" She pushed him against the wall and stepped back.

Jack could see the anger flashing in her eyes, just how it did when he met her in Tortuga.

"Look, look, Bell," Jack said, brushing himself off. "I'm in a really complicated situation here. I, well...uh, ran away."

" _You ran away?!_ " Arabella said, a little too loudly. "That's it, I'm calling the cops."

"No! Please don't!" Jack begged. "If I go back home, my da' will probably give me the lashing of a lifetime...and admit me to this 'behavior center' hospital."

Arabella shook her head. "No, I'm not going to participate in another one of your schemes. I'm calling the cops." She turned to go back inside.

"Wait," Jack grabbed her arm. "I was supposed to get on a train tonight and I screwed up. If you let me stay the night, I will leave in the morning and you shall never speak about me or any of my plans to anyone. Savvy?"

Arabella thought for a moment. "I don't know if I can do that. My dad's temper is bad enough as it is, and he's going to be in a more _frightful_ state cleaning up and repairing the place you helped destroy. Wait until he finds out I snuck a boy into my room."

"He won't find out," Jack promised. "He won't even notice I'm here at all."

Jack looked at her with pleading eyes. Arabella knew he wasn't going to give up.

Arabella sighed. "All right. I'll sneak you in for the night, clean you up, and bring you some food. But you are leaving here early before the first train stops in. And you are not to leave your hiding spot unless I sneak you to the bathroom. Hear?"

Jack gave her a quick bow. "Of course, my lady."

"Okay. Before we go upstairs, I need to settle the fight in there first," Arabella reached behind her back and pulled out what looked to be some kind of pistol from her pants.

Arabella stormed into the bar. Through the closed door, Jack could hear her yelling. "Hey! Get the fuck out right now before I make you myself!"

The sounds of the fighting went down and the bar seemed to be emptying. Arabella came back out with the gun in hand.

"Wow, lass. I knew you were tough, but I didn't think you would clear out an entire bar," Jack said. He pointed at the gun, "Is that real?"

"This? Yeah, it's real," Arabella replied, holding it up. "It's empty, though. I just use it to scare drunken cowards like them." She tucked the pistol back behind her. "Let's go up."

Arabella and Jack went up the nearby stairs against the building. She stuck her head through the door to check if the coast was clear and she led Jack in through the living room, where her father was passed out on the couch, and down the hall to the bathroom.

Arabella grabbed a towel out of the linen closet and handed it to Jack. "Take a quick shower. I'll grab you a change of clothes and I'll put yours in the laundry."

Jack stared at the mirror in Arabella's room horrified. What stared back was himself in an oversized teddy bear onesie. Arabella walked into the room in a Barnacle High School t-shirt and pajama pants with a towel wrapped around her head.

"Is this what I get for putting this upon you?" Jack asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Is there anything else you could have put me in that wouldn't be so humiliating?"

"You are welcome to go through my closet and grab a night gown or short shorts, Mr. Sparrow," Arabella said, pulling the towel off her head.

Jack decided the onesie didn't seem so humiliating after all.

Arabella sat her bed and began brushing her damp auburn hair. "So, since I'm kinda on the in now, why did you run away?"

"Oh, not much," Jack answered. "Home was chaotic, family thinks I'm crazy, school sucks. So I decided to run away and go off on an adventure."

"That's it?" Arabella questioned. "All those things must suck, but I don't think that should be enough to just run away like that...." she began to turn suspicious. "I feel like you're hiding something."

"Me?" Jack put a hand to his chest. "Hiding something? No, no, no, no, no."

"Jack," Arabella's voice hardened a little, trying to pry an honest answer out of Jack.

Jack sighed and sat on the bed beside her. "If I tell you, you'll think I'm mad, too—just like everyone else."

"You don't know that unless you tell me."

He didn't know what else to do. The Arabella from his time would likely believe him, but he didn't know this Arabella.

Jack looked at Arabella dead in the eyes. "Bell, I'm not the Jack you know."

Arabella furrowed her brows. "What?"

Jack began to tell her everything. He told her a bit about his life in the 1700s Caribbean aboard the _Barnacle_ , and how he knew a version of her, Fitzwilliam, Jean, and Tumen (he purposely left out Constance), and how he basically ended up in the future.

"I talked with Tia Dalma at school—"

"Wait, the nurse?"

"—Yes," Jack replied looking away, recalling his conversation with Tia Dalma. "She told me I didn't just end up in another time, but in another world."

"So it's like an alternate timeline."

"Exactly. I crossed worlds with another version of myself. She said I was sent here, and the only way to get back is to face him where we first met, and if I don't go back soon, I'm going to loose all memories of my old life."

"Who sent you here then?" Arabella asked.

Jack thought.

_"Just follow de storm. You will find him."_

_"I was sent to another universe to take care of some unfinished business...and that's why I sent you here!"_

"Captain Torn Pants...."

Arabella gave Jack a weird look.

"Torrents! The infamous and dreaded pirate of the Caribbean!" Jack explained. "I've had a few...let's say _encounters_ with him. The last I saw him, he was on his way to the Locker. Apparently he ended up here...and I have to defeat him...again! And in the place where we first met...." Jack trailed off as he looked Arabella again. He had only just began thinking about it. "Tortuga."

"But that's all the way in the Caribbean!" Arabella said.

"I was already on the way there anyway," Jack said. "I figured I'd find who I needed to meet there. Also, I think there was something missing from what Tia Dalma told me. That woman never gives me a straight answer and she never makes sense. I don't even bloody know what I need to go back home if I do defeat him."

"How did you plan on getting to the Caribbean?"

"Simple," Jack grabbed his backpack and unzipped it, pulling out his notebook. He pulled the papers out of it and skimmed through them. "I was going to take the train down to Miami where I will catch the next cruise to the Caribbean."

"Cruise? You mean one of those cruise ships?" Arabella asked. "You didn't need to take the train all the way to Miami to go on a cruise."

"It's closer to the Caribbean."

Arabella took the papers and looked through them herself. "Jack, you know you have to _book_ these months or years in advance, right?"

Jack looked blank.

"And they cost, like, hundreds of dollars."

Jack grabbed his wallet out of his backpack and looked in it. He had stolen cash from his house a bit at a time while he was stuck there. But he had to leave so suddenly, he wasn't able to get as much as he wanted; no more than sixty-five dollars minus the money he paid to get on the bus.

"Well, I screwed up again," Jack said, shoving his wallet back in his backpack.

Arabella stood up and paced around the room.

Jack watched as she paced around for a minute more. "What's on your mind?"

Arabella glanced at Jack. She looked hesitant, as if she was pondering on a difficult decision. "You know what? I'm coming with you."

Jack quickly stood up. "Wait—what?! Why?" he asked, shocked.

"You obviously have no idea what you're doing. You're going to get yourself killed," Arabella responded. "Besides, I don't really have any _other_ plans...besides working here at the Tavern for the rest of my life, or until I move out," she said sadly. "Or until dad dies from the drink," she added, a little angrier. "I've had little—really _nothing_ —since my mom was kidnapped when I was little. The police don't have any leads. I really do miss her. Dad and I are sure she's...."

Jack noticed the look on her face and felt a surge of sympathy.

Arabella continued. "Ever since she was kidnapped, my dad started drinking and we've struggled to keep the bar afloat. My mom was the bartender, so it was a loss for the business as well. We tried hiring other tenders, but they didn't really work out. The last one we had didn't even know a quarter is twenty-five cents. So I started working when I was fourteen, years after we had to move out of Downtown when it became too expensive.

"It's not too hard of a job. It's a sports bar, so our customers are usually men who only order beer. The most complicated drink I have to make is just rum and Coke.

"Though, I never really got to have a social life outside of school. I always have to go straight home and open the Tavern, and I can't do my homework until after 12 A.M. when the bar closes. To top it off, I have to deal with all the creeps, break fights, _and_ I don't even get to keep all the tips. I always have to give half of my tips to dad even though he never works at all. All he ever does is sit around and drink all day and night until he passes out."

"That's sounds rough for sure," Jack said with an edge in his voice. He fantasized what rum and Coke would be like, although he never tried Coke. Jack shook his head, putting his focus back on the conversation. "It's interesting this place is called Tortuga Tavern. I thought it would have been called the Faithful Bride...or something," he quickly added at the end.

Arabella looked surprised, as if she recognized the name. "It _was_ called that," she said. "We got complaints and we were forced to change the name to something more politically correct, Tortuga Tavern."

"Hmm...." Jack didn't know what that term meant but he shrugged it off.

"Well, since I'm coming," Arabella began. "I'm going to have to keep you here for a few more days until I gather some things—food and water. I'm going to have to arrange our transportation since we are definitely not going by train."

"Great!" Jack said, clapping his hands together. "But where am I going to sleep?"

"Up here," Arabella went to her closet and parted her clothes, revealing a door up on the ceiling. She grabbed a string that hung off the door and pulled it down, opening the door. A rope ladder dropped down with it, dangling against the wall.

"You are probably going to like this," Arabella hinted. She began climbing the ladder.

Jack pulled his backpack on and followed after her. He couldn't believe what he saw when he got to the top and Arabella turned the light on.

It was a small attic, and every corner of it was filled with a ton objects from his own world, most of them being infamous magical items. The first one Jack noticed was the sword hanger that had a few different swords, one of them being the Sword of Cortés in its scabbard. Jack's eyes shone as he walked over and picked up the Sword. He unsheathed the sword and waved it over himself.

"All right, Swordy. Take me home!" To Jack's disappointment, the Sword of Cortés didn't do anything.

"Magic and curses don't exist in this world. Unfortunately it won't work here," Arabella said.

Jack sheathed the Sword and hung it back up. He recognized the other swords hanging with it, two of them being the Sword of El Patron and the Sword of Triton. Nearby against the same wall was the Trident of Poseidon, which was part of Jack's last adventure. There were other chests around, one being a huge chest of unknown origins, but a beating of a heart could be heard deep inside. Another was a smaller chest containing the Chalices of Cartagena. Against another wall was a shelf displaying multiple ships in bottles.

"I can't believe it! Every blasted cursed thing ever in the Caribbean—in the world, is all in here!" Jack said in disbelief. "If they worked, I'd be the most powerful captain in all the Seven Seas!" He turned to Arabella. "How did you get these?"

"I don't know," Arabella shrugged. "I haven't been up here very much really. I came up a while back and I saw this. It's all so fascinating so I never really told anybody since I wanted to study them."

Jack knelt down next to another chest and went through it. It had multiple different treasures like the Eye of Stone-Eyed Sam, the Sun-And-Stars amulet, a little box with Edward Teague's ring in it, and many more.

Before Jack could look through it anymore, he turned to Arabella. "Is this what made you believe my story?"

"No—well, partly," Arabella replied. "I like studying stories like that. Like the paranormal, legends, conspiracies, history, alternate universes and timelines, the unknown....

"And I've known you for quite a while...the you before you. The you I knew earlier in high school and back in elementary. You always got into so much trouble. Fighting, bullying, drinking, flirting, stealing, lying. I never talked to you much, but I knew whenever you lied. I always looked at you in the eyes and knew you were lying. When you were telling your story just earlier, those weren't _'I'm lying'_ eyes, they were _'I'm telling the truth'_ eyes. Same with when you begged me to stay the night, and back at school a week ago when I saw you by the lockers. I don't trust you, but I believe you. After remembering seeing you almost get killed and hearing about your plans, I knew I had to come."

Jack smiled. Someone other than plain ol' weird Tia Dalma and crazy Master Gibbs was finally on his side, and didn't think he was going mad or needed help.

"I'm going to get you something to eat and I gotta start on my homework," Arabella turned to the door and went down the ladder, disappearing in the dark corner of the attic.

The storm persisted outside as Jack spent the rest of the night exploring the attic, going through chests and chests of cursed and magical artifacts. He found a vile of the Shadow Gold, the Aztec Idol, a medallion necklace from the Chest of Cortés, the Heart of Zerzura, a compass that doesn't seem to point north, and more.

"Hey, look! It's Fitzy's ol' pocket watch," Jack pulled out a little gold pocket watch from the chest. He examined it and pressed down the crown to see if it worked, as when it did before, time froze. The power of it was already gone the last time he saw it, so it unsurprisingly didn't work. Jack tossed the pocket watch back in the chest.

Thunder rolled again. Suddenly, a loud bang could be heard and sparks of lights flashed across the little window of the attic.

"Oh, lovely! Fireworks!" Jack said cheerfully as he went over and looked out the window.

What Jack thought were fireworks was a utility pole being knocked down across the street, crushing a car that began blaring a loud alarm. As quickly as it was knocked over, the lights along the street shut off and the buildings went dark, and the light that lit up the attic went out.

"Damn it! The power went out!" Arabella shouted from her room below.

"Oh, so that's how it works," Jack mused.

A few minutes later, Arabella came up with a lantern.

"The power went out," Arabella said, placing the lantern on the ground in the middle of the attic. "I don't know how long it will be out for, so use this for a while."

"Thanks," Jack muttered, going back to the chest he was looking through.

"I'm going to go to bed now. Goodnight," Arabella turned and went back down the ladder to her room.

"Night," Jack began looking in the chest again, however a glint of light from the side of the room he hadn't looked at before caught his attention. He noticed a large oval-ish mirror with a fancy golden frame leaning against the wall. It looked pretty antique, even for his time.

Jack picked up the lantern and slowly approached the mirror. The mirror wasn't too big, just big enough to probably hang over a bathroom sink.

"What's this now," Jack recognized most of the magical objects he saw in the attic, but he didn't remember hearing of a mirror.

Jack knelt down and placed the lantern on the ground, looking at his reflection with the little bit of light he had. He lifted an arm and brushed his fingers against the edge of the glass. Suddenly, his reflection began to fade away.

Jack was about to say something, but then his reflection faded back in. This new reflection looked different. Instead of seeing himself in his pajamas he changed into after being sick of wearing the onesie, he saw himself in all of his old 1700s "pirate" clothes; what he wore in his old timeline.

Confused, Jack quickly looked down at himself, but he was still in his pajamas. Then he looked up at the mirror again and his reflection was his 1700s self.

"How in the—" Jack started. He brushed his fingers on the glass again and his reflection faded back to normal. "That's weird...but interesting." He began to realize this mirror will probably be important.


	9. Chapter 9

"Hey, Bell. Take this down there for me," Jack called over, hanging the mirror down from the attic.

Arabella took it from below. "And why do we need this?"

"Because," Jack answered, hanging his backpack down for her to take after. "I'm probably going to need it."

After Arabella grabbed the backpack, which she thought felt a little _too_ heavy, Jack tossed his leather jacket down and began climbing down the ladder.

Jack hit the ground and began tying his boots on as he watched Arabella finish her makeup at her desk. "Love, you're running away. Why do you need makeup?"

"I like to look and feel good. I'm not even doing a full face," Arabella replied, spurting some spray on her face. "I saw you putting on your eye makeup up there."

"That's different."

"How is that different?"

"It's raining outside," Jack said trying to make up an excuse. "Your makeup is going to get ruined and that's all that you're going to worry about. Mine is going to run and I don't care."

Arabella rolled her eyes. She packed the remainder of her things and her makeup into her backpack. She then zipped up a yellow hoodie over her t-shirt and threw on her rain jacket.

Arabella glanced over at Jack who was putting on his jacket and looked at his bandana. She decided she wanted to wear something like that as well and went to a small drawer, where she took a green printed scarf and pulled all her hair back, except her bangs, into it. She stuffed her wallet into her jeans pocket, pulled both of her hoods up, put on her backpack, and picked up a duffle bag full of supplies.

"So you said you arranged things....Where are we going?" Jack asked.

"Barnacle High," Arabella replied casually.

Jack gasped as he dropped his backpack onto the ground.

"So are you really, really, really sure you aren't just bringing me here to turn me in?" Jack questioned, shielding the rain from his eyes with the mirror as they walked towards the school.

"Jack, why would I gather and drag all this stuff down here with me to turn you into the police?" Arabella retorted, pulling the duffle bag up as it slipped down. "Not to mention that we just took an hour and a half going down the only bus route running this early in the morning and we've been walking for ages in this storm."

"We haven't been walking for that long," Jack said.

The two teenagers walked to the back of the school where the main parking lot was, which was dark aside from a few lampposts that were lit, the rain being visible through the bright light. They found the only vehicle around, parked near the track where the security cameras wouldn't see them. The vehicle looked a bit sketchy, being a large windowless white cargo van with driver and passenger doors, a sliding door on one side, and doors that swung open in the back.

"This is it," Arabella confirmed. "This is our ride."

"All right," Jack said, a bit unsure. "Do you know how to steer this thing?"

"She's not driving," someone said from behind the van. The person whose voice that belonged to walked around the van into view, which turned out to be none other than Fitzwilliam P. Dalton III sheltering himself from the rain under an umbrella. "I will."

Jack stood there quietly, his eyes bulging as his jaw hung down. Arabella dropped her duffle bag and grabbed Jack's mirror so he wouldn't drop and break it. She knew Jack would be upset.

"No...." Jack then dramatically dropped to his knees, which hurt on the rough asphalt. "No....NOOO! Why me?! Why can't I ever escape from all the vile things life throws at me?!" he cried in despair.

"Come on. It won't be _that_ bad, Jack," Arabella assured.

After realizing the person who needed his help was Jack, Fitzwilliam's face turned from anticipation to anger as he looked at Arabella. "Why didn't you tell me your 'friend' who needed our help is the biggest _asshole_ in our school?"

"If I told you it was Jack, you wouldn't do it," Arabella snarled.

"You're right. I wouldn't," Fitzwilliam curtly replied.

"Well, you're the only person I know that drives and has a boat. And you also have the money for gas and extra supplies," Arabella explained impatiently. "Jack here stumbled into my bar soaking wet and almost got himself killed by my customers, told me he tried to take a late night bus to the train station that closed hours before, and was about to catch 'the next cruise' to the Caribbean. If we can get Jack to his destination in one piece, that would be great, Mr. Dalton," she enunciated the last part.

"Great, whatever," Fitzwilliam huffed under his breath.

"Hey, guys! What's up?"

Jack hopped back onto his feet and looked down the empty parking lot to see where the voice and footsteps were coming from, blinking the rain droplets from his eyes.

A pair of two younger boys came out of the darkness hidden by hoods and an umbrella. The boys pulled down their hoods to reveal their faces.

"Well look who it is, Tumen. It's Jack Sparrow!" the one boy grinned, who was obviously Jean.

Jack gave him a strange look. Jean had the same generic accent as everyone else, but there was a hint of French Creole somewhere in his tone. Jean and Tumen also didn't look far too different from the ones in his world. Jean's curly hair was a bit shorter while Tumen's silky black hair was much, much shorter.

"What?" Jack was speechless. He simply couldn't wrap his head around the fact that it was Jean and Tumen!

"You were the one who brought the 'shits and giggles' brownies to the Back To School dance!" Jean said with a slight laugh.

"Bloody hell. Don't remind me," Fitzwilliam put a hand to his stomach, almost looking nauseous.

"Sounds like you had the laxative," Arabella said to him. "I had to leave the dance early because I was crying and tripping out too much."

"Lucky you. I had, like, _five_ of them," Jean said. "Next thing I know, I'm laying next to the toilet covered in shit and puke."

"I had to clean him up," Tumen added with a shiver. "The whole gym was covered in that, and dozens of students had to be carried away on stretchers."

"Yeah, I think that made the News!" Jean recalled.

Jack tried to not crack a smile. From what he heard about the things the other him did in this world, he felt pretty legendary. He brushed it off, wanting to worry about the matter at hand.

Jack leaned in towards Arabella. "I thought you said you didn't know Jean and Tumen."

"I didn't," Arabella said, shaking her head. "But a few days later, Tumen transferred to my art class and we started talking."

"Graphic design was kinda hard," Tumen shrugged with a small embarrassed smile.

"You can try again next year, my friend," Jean said, clapping him on the back.

"Hey, uh, Bell. Let's put our stuff away," Jack hinted, taking his mirror back from Arabella. "I need to talk to you," he quietly said to her through his teeth.

Arabella nodded and the two went to the van together. She opened the sliding door and they climbed in. It appeared Fitzwilliam had already packed extra supplies: a cooler, several blankets and an air mattress rolled up at the side, a camping toilet for emergencies, a first aid box, a power strip that connected to the front of the van, and Fitzwilliam's own bags. The inside of the van was quite spacious, so they hoped they would have room to sit around and lay down inside.

Jack laid his mirror against the side and put his backpack against it. Arabella put her bags down.

"You didn't tell me we were going with all of them!" Jack said in a low voice. "The last time I went on an adventure with the _Barnacle_ crew, it ended in a _disaster_!"

"We couldn't do it ourselves, Jack!" Arabella hissed. "We would be spotted as missing kids by the staff on the train and immediately send us back home, and we can't sail a boat by ourselves. We don't even have the money to _rent_ one! Fitz's dad has a few boats in Miami, and Fitzwilliam 'borrowed' the school's supply van from his uncle, Principal Norrington."

"You better not have told them my situation," Jack said, giving her a warning glare.

"No, I just told them you needed our help and we're going on a trip to the Caribbean."

Jack sat on the cooler and thought. "I could see how Fitzdalton could help, but what's Jean and Tumen gonna do, especially _this_ Jean and Tumen?" Jack asked, gesturing in their direction.

"Jean is interested in sailing," Arabella responded, "and he can cook. Tumen is into geography and he wants a cartography career. He could help with navigation."

"Hmm."

Jack and Arabella hopped out of the van and shut the door, walking back to the rest of the group.

"Question for you, lad," Jack approached Jean. "Do you, by the chance, have a nasty, mangy, cat-like thing that you think is your sister with you?"

Jean shifted uncomfortably, pulling on the straps of his backpack. "Uh, no. I don't know what you're talking about."

Jack straightened his back and smiled. "Great! Welcome aboard, mates!" He happily shook Jean and Tumen's hands.

Jack pulled out his phone from his wallet to check the time. Suddenly, Arabella grabbed the phone out of Jack's hand and threw it to the ground, stomping on it until it broke and shut off. If that didn't do away with the phone, then the pouring rain falling into it's exposed parts would have done it.

Jack frowned. "What's that for?"

"Phones have a GPS in them," Arabella pressed, "meaning they can track our every move and the authorities will find us when they start looking." She then added, "I already left mine at home."

"All right," Jack said flatly.

He glanced over to Fitzwilliam, who clearly wasn't paying attention, looking down at his phone in one hand while holding the umbrella with the other. Jack strode over to Fitzwilliam in a focused manor. Once he was close enough, he quickly swiped the phone out of his hand, catching Fitzwilliam off-guard, and hurled it to the street. In terrible timing, a truck sped down the road at the same time, causing the phone to hit the windshield of the truck leaving a large webbed crack. The truck honked as it swerved a bit on the wet asphalt.

Jean and Tumen stared. Arabella gasped and Fitzwilliam's jaw went agape.

"What. The. _FUCK_!" Fitzwilliam screamed.

Jack brushed his hands together. "Sorry, chap. No phones allowed on the trip!"

"That was a brand new iPhone 11! I literally just got it a week ago!" Fitzwilliam shouted.

Jean pulled out his own phone from his pocket. "Well," he sighed, "there goes my foodstagram." He threw his phone into a nearby bush.

"Your what—now?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow.

"My foodstagram," Jean repeated. "I'm a foodfluencer on Instagram. I have about twenty-thousand followers for posting food pictures from restaurants all around Tampa Bay."

"Wow! Thats's quite impressive, Jean! Especially for somebody your age," Arabella said in amazement.

"Well, yeah," Jean humbly shrugged.

"I'm an influencer, too," Fitzwilliam chimed in.

Jack stared at Fitzwilliam. "You? An influencer?"

"Why, of course," Fitzwilliam replied.

Jack took a few steps toward the aristo. "Don't you stand there right now and tell me you influence your _seventy-four_ followers," Jack exposed.

Fitzwilliam looked angry again. "I do _not_ have seventy-four followers!"

"Well, Fitzy, I've spent the last couple weeks browsing through this bloody thing," Jack pointed to his broken phone on the ground, "and I actually found your Instagram thingy." A smirk drew across Jack's face.

Jean and Tumen laughed a little. Fitzwilliam glared at Jack. He looked as if he wanted to retort, but he couldn't as he knew Jack was right.

Jack looked at Tumen, as did everybody else since they all tossed their phones away, and Arabella left hers behind. Jean, however, gazed away from everyone.

Tumen shoved a hand that wasn't holding his umbrella into his jacket pocket. "I—actually don't have a phone," he said quietly.

Fitzwilliam and Arabella looked at each other astonished. Jack smiled and clapped his hands together. "Great, then! One less to deal with!"

Jack took a few steps back away from the group. "All right, mates! Let's continue getting acquainted with each other in the van. The storm's blowing harder, and the longer we stand here the bigger the chance we'll be caught. Mustn't waste time here. Shall we?" He extended an arm towards the van.

Everybody watched as a palm tree branch blew past them. While Jean and Tumen were under their umbrella and Fitzwilliam was under his, Jack and Arabella were without one, soaking them wet to the bone. As a gentlemen, Fitzwilliam let Arabella hide under his umbrella with him to keep her out of the rain.

"Well, then we're a team," Arabella said, putting a hand out in front of Jack. Reminded of how much he missed his old crew, Jack stared at it with a bit of emotion showing through. While his old adventures had ended, a new one was about to begin with a group of friends who were closest to his original crew. Jack grinned with sudden enthusiasm and put his hand on top of hers. Jean put his hand on top of the two, then Tumen. Fitzwilliam hesitated, slowly putting his hand on theirs.

"To adventure!" Jack toasted.

"To adventure," Arabella repeated, grinning.

"To _aventure_!" Jean smiled, his French finally coming out.

"To adventure," Tumen muttered.

"Yes, to adventure," Fitzwilliam said slowly and seriously.

The new _Barnacle_ crew rushed to the van, hoping to leave the school as soon as possible. Arabella swung the back door open and her, Jean, and Tumen filed into the van. Fitzwilliam went towards the driver's side, but Jack rushed over and beat him to it.

"Ha! Beat you!" Jack laughed as he opened the door, about to climb into the driver's seat.

"Oh hell no!" Fitzwilliam grabbed Jack by the collar of his jacket and pulled him away. "Am I really going to let someone who has been arrested for two DUIs, underage drinking, been in four accidents, and has a suspended license behind the wheel of my uncle's van?"

"I don't know how you know that but yes," Jack said, wrestling free from Fitzwilliam's grip.

"You can't drive, Jack," Arabella said from inside the van.

"Yes I can! It can't be much harder than steering a ship—or a boat," Jack protested. "I'll show you."

Fitzwilliam gave in and let go of Jack, letting him hop in the driver's seat. Fitzwilliam went to the other side and climbed in the passenger's seat.

"Are you ready, mates?" Jack said, flashing a smile.

"To die? Yes," Jean answered.

Jack rolled his eyes.

"All right, Jack. Put on your seatbelt and check the mirrors," Fitzwilliam instructed.

Jack did as he was told. "Check."

Fitzwilliam then handed the keys to Jack. "Now start the van and put on the windshield wipers and the beams."

Jack fumbled with the keys a little bit and put in the ignition like how he saw Teague do before. He was confused with the rest of the instructions, which Fitzwilliam helped him do. The rest of the crew in the back hopelessly shook their heads.

"Now shift the gear and put your foot on the accelerator—the pedal on the far right," Arabella directed.

Before anyone could give further instructions, Jack shifted the gear to drive and slammed his foot onto the accelerator, immediately jolting the van forward into the tree in front of them. Everyone screamed as they flew back, and Jack stopped the van when it made contact with the tree. The tree wasn't very big—the van probably did more damage to the tree than the tree did to the van.

Fitzwilliam looked furious. "THAT'S IT! GET OUT! NOW!"

"All right. Gee, fine," Jack said, unbuckling his seatbelt.

Jack and Fitzwilliam exited the van, walking around and switching sides. They hopped in their seats and put on their seat belts again. Fitzwilliam adjusted the mirrors and shifted the gear to reverse, pressing on the pedal and pulling the van back away from the tree. When the van was backed up all the way, he shifted it into drive and turned, driving down to the exit of the parking lot.

"Do you know where to go?" Arabella asked Fitzwilliam.

"Uh, not really," Fitzwilliam sounded unsure. "Especially since I don't have a phone anymore to navigate me," he added, glaring at Jack.

"Hey, it was Arabella's idea," Jack defended, putting his hands up. Arabella slapped him upside the head from behind.

"Well, we gotta get out of town first—before everyone wakes up," Arabella said. "Can you do that?"

"Yeah, I can," Fitzwilliam replied. "I'll find a library in the next town or so where we can print out directions."

"Onward!" Jack cheered.


End file.
